McSweeney's

Born in 1998 as a literary journal edited by author Dave Eggers, San Francisco-based McSweeney's quickly became known for its offbeat approach to fiction, attracting writers big and small to its quirky pages. Today, McSweeney's funny, feel-good indie press turns out a quarterly literary journal (Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern); books (a few imprints, varying in themes and styles); a magazine (The Believer); and a DVD magazine (Wholphin) that features obscure works by well-known people. As a movement, McSweeney's is dead set on bringing back the luxuries of literary hijinks, not the least of which can be found in their printing: each issue of the journal (and some of the books) is a design bonanza, showcasing progressive literary styles in a multi-media format (boxes, cut paper, illustration, comics, a pile of mail, zines, et al.) Of course, serious writing remains of the utmost importance--with no creative constraints in sight, writers often create literary fiction and essays with McSweeney's in mind from the outset. If "print is dead," McSweeney's works are likely to become some of the best-preserved relics, if not the inspiration for a new print revolution.