''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'' is an American literary journal, founded in 1998, typically containing short stories, reportage, and illustrations. Some issues also include poetry, comic strips, and novellas. ''The Quarterly Concern'' is published by

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American nonprofit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. The executive director is Amanda Uhle. McSweeney's first publication was the literary journal'' Timothy McSw ...

based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and it has been edited by

Dave Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. His 2000 memoir, '' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'', became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is a ...

. The journal is notable in that it has no fixed format, and changes its publishing style from issue to issue, unlike more conventional journals and magazines. The first issue featured only works that had been rejected by other publications, but the journal has since begun publishing pieces written with McSweeney's in mind.

History

''McSweeney's'' was founded in 1998 after Dave Eggers left an editing position at ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', during the same time he was working on ''

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'' is a memoir by American author Dave Eggers. Published in 2000, the book chronicles Eggers' experiences following the sudden death of both his parents and his subsequent responsibility for raising his y ...

''. ''McSweeney's'' is a sort of successor to Eggers' earlier magazine project '' Might'', although ''Might'' was focused on editorial content and news, and not literature. Eggers also refers to ''McSweeney's'' as having "less edge" than ''Might''. Although originally reaching only a small audience, ''McSweeney's'' has grown to be a well respected journal, with

Ruth Franklin Ruth Franklin is an American literary critic. She is a former editor at ''The New Republic'' and an Adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her first biography, ''Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,'' ...

, writing for Slate, referring to the ''Quarterly'' (and company) as "the first bona fide literary movement in decades". In 2013, NPR wrote about the company's fifteenth anniversary, and referred to the journal as the "flagship literary quarterly" of a "literary empire based in San Francisco".

Authors

Notable authors featured in ''McSweeney's'' include

Denis Johnson Denis Hale Johnson (July 1, 1949 – May 24, 2017) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, ''Jesus' Son (short story collection), Jesus' Son'' (1992). His most succes ...

, William T. Vollmann,

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, D.C., he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, ...

Susan Straight Susan Straight (born October 19, 1960) is an American writer. She was a National Book Award finalist for the novel ''Highwire Moon'' in 2001. Biography Susan Straight attended John W. North High School in Riverside, California and took classes ...

Roddy Doyle Roderick Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ...

T. Coraghessan Boyle Thomas Coraghessan Boyle (born December 2, 1948) is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published nineteen novels and more than 150 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988, for his third novel, ' ...

Steven Millhauser Steven Millhauser (born August 3, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel '' Martin Dressler''. Life and career Millhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, ...

Robert Coover Robert Lowell Coover (February 4, 1932 – October 5, 2024) was an American novelist, Short story, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is best known for his 1996 novel ''Infinite Jest'', which ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine ...

and

Ann Beattie Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story ...

. The ''Quarterly'' has also helped launch the careers of dozens of emerging writers, including

Philipp Meyer Philipp Meyer (born May 3, 1974) is an American fiction writer, and is the author of the novels '' American Rust'' and '' The Son'', as well as short stories published in ''The New Yorker'' and other places. Meyer also created and produced the A ...

Wells Tower Wells Tower (born April 14, 1973) is an American writer of short stories, non-fiction, feature films and television. In 2009 he published his first short story collection, ''Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) to m ...

, and

Rebecca Curtis Rebecca Curtis (born January 10, 1974) is an American writer. She is the author of ''Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love & Money'' (HarperCollins, 2007) and has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's, NOON, N+1, and other mag ...

Awards

In 2007, ''McSweeney's'' received the

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

for Fiction for three stories published in 2006: "Wild Child" by T.C. Boyle (Issue 19); "To Sit, Unmoving" by

Susan Steinberg (author) Susan Steinberg is an American writer. She is the author of the short story collections ''The End of Free Love'' (FC2, 2003), ''Hydroplane'' (University of Alabama Press, 2006) and ''Spectacle'' (Graywolf Press, 2013). Her first novel ''Machine: A ...

(Issue 20); and "The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan" by Rajesh Parameswaran (Issue 21). In 2010,

Anthony Doerr Anthony Doerr is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel '' All the Light We Cannot See'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Early life and education Doerr grew up in Cleveland ...

, and Kevin Moffett won the National Magazine Awards for their stories "Memory Wall", "Raw Water", and "Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events", respectively, all published in Issue 32.

Published issues

McSweeney's publishes each issue in a different format. Past issues have ranged in format from simple hardcovers or softcovers to more unconventional configurations, such as newspapers, a bundle of mail, a box emblazoned with a man's sweaty head, and a deck of playing cards. Some issues feature writing exclusively or mostly from one geographic area, such as Issue 15, which contained half American and half Icelandic writing. In Issue 10, it was claimed that exactly 56 issues of the journal would be published. In Issue 20, this claim was repeated in an advertisement that stated: "There will be roughly thirty-six ssuesto come; then, a five-year retrenchment." With the publication of Issue 56 it was revealed that this had always been a joke and that they would continue to publish until at least issue 156.

Notes

Anthologies

*''Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category'' (

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

, 2004) *''The Best of McSweeney's, Volume 1'' (

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ...

, 2004) *''The Best of McSweeney's, Volume 2'' (Hamish Hamilton, 2005) *''The Better of McSweeney's: Volume One — Issues 1 – 10, Stories and Letters'' (McSweeney's Books, 2005) *''The Best of McSweeney's'' (McSweeney's Books, 2013)

References

External links

* *Tai Moses
"Mighty Muse"
a 1998 review of the debut issue, from the Silicon Valley online weekly ''Metroactive''. *Matt Goldberg

interview), ''The Village Voice'', March 23, 1999.

a 1999 review from ''Context'', at the Center for Book Culture.org. *Ruth Franklin
"The 98-Pound Gorilla in the Room" by Ruth Franklin
a review of Issue 10 and the "McSweeney's short story", from Slate.com, April 3, 2003. *Mark Holcomb

a review of Issue 10 from ''The Village Voice'', April 8, 2003. {{authority control McSweeney's periodicals Quarterly magazines published in the United States Literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1998 1998 establishments in California Magazines published in San Francisco