McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

founded by

Dave Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...

in 1998 and headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Initially publishing the literary journal''

Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern ''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'' i ...

'', the company has moved to novels, books of poetry, and other periodicals.

Company history

Since 2002 Advanced Marketing Services had been the parent company of McSweeney's distributor

Publishers Group West Publishers Group West (PGW) is a book distributor founded in 1976 in Berkeley, California, which distributes to bookstores in the U.S. and internationally. They were the largest distributor of independent presses in the U.S. in the 1990s. In 2007, ...

(PGW), but in 2006 they declared bankruptcy. At the time of the filing, PGW owed McSweeney's about $600,000. McSweeney's eventually accepted an offer from

Perseus Books Group Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Ye ...

to take over distribution; the deal paid McSweeney's 70 percent of the money owed by PGW. In June 2007, McSweeney's held a successful sale and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

auction which helped make up the difference. As of 2013, the company's archives, including rare material from its founding and its early history, are held in the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In October 2014, Dave Eggers announced that McSweeney's would become a nonprofit and began asking for donations for several projects on its website. Eggers cited declining sales and increased opportunities for raising funds as reasons for McSweeney's long-discussed change to a nonprofit publishing house. As of 2015, McSweeney's expanded its operations into partnerships with companies including eyewear one-for-one

Warby Parker Warby Parker is an American online retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Warby Parker was founded as primarily online retailer, but now sells primarily (about 90%) through approximately 160 p ...

and accommodations marketplace

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

. The musician

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

has worked in tandem with Warby Parker and McSweeney's to design a custom pair of spectacles. In addition to its ''Fast Company'' award, McSweeney's has received "best of" awards and plaudits from ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...

'' and several other publications. In 2019, McSweeney's began publishing ''Illustoria'' magazine, founded by Joanne Meiyi Chan.

Company name

In 2004, Eggers said that when he was a child his family received letters addressed from someone named Timothy McSweeney, who claimed to be a relative of his mother. Eggers now claims that the real McSweeney is in care for mental illness, and his letters arrived as a result of confusion over the fact that Eggers' grandfather, who delivered Timothy at birth, and a McSweeney family, who adopted him, had the same name.

Publications

In addition to a book list of approximately ten titles a year, McSweeney's also publishes the quarterly literary journal, ''

'', the daily-updated humor site ''McSweeney's Internet Tendency'', and ''Illustoria'', an art and storytelling magazine for six to 11-year olds. The bimonthly magazine '' The Believer'', the quarterly food journal ''Lucky Peach,'' and the sports journal ''Grantland Quarterly'', in association with sports and pop culture website

Grantland ''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed ...

, were all established and incubated by McSweeney's. A quarterly DVD magazine, ''

Wholphin A wholphin (portmanteau of whale + dolphin) is an extremely rare cetacean hybrid born from a mating of a female common bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') with a male false killer whale (''Pseudorca crassidens''). The name implies a hy ...

'', was decommissioned in 2012. The publishing house also runs additional imprints occasionally, including McSweeney's McMullens, a children's book department; McSweeney's Poetry Series, and the Collins Library, which reprints unusual titles. Version 2.0 of McSweeney's

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

app was released in 2011; the Organist, a podcast produced by the editors of ''The Believer'' and

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

, launched in 2012.

Authors

McSweeney's has helped launch the careers of dozens of emerging writers, including

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 ...

, Paul Legault,

Philipp Meyer Philipp Meyer 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 AMC television show b ...

, and

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 ...

; it has also published the works of well-established authors such as

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

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...

George Saunders George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. His writing has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', '' Harper's'', ''McSweeney's'', and '' GQ''. He also contributed a w ...

Michael Ian Black Michael Ian Black (born Michael Ian Schwartz; August 12, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and director. He has starred in several TV comedy series, including ''The State'', ''Viva Variety'', '' Stella'', '' Wet Hot American Summer: Fi ...

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir ''Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work f ...

, and

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 non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

. The house has also published the work of musicians, critics and artists including

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

and

. The band

One Ring Zero One Ring Zero is a modern music group led by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst that melds many genres and sounds to create a unique type of music. Instruments Hearst plays the theremin and guitar, and Camp plays the accordion and piano. They both pl ...

gained popularity by performing at early McSweeney's events in New York and solicited lyric-writing assistance from McSweeney's contributors for the 2004 album, ''As Smart As We Are.'' McSweeney's was also the subject of the

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

song "The Ballad of Timothy McSweeney."

Non-McSweeney's collections

These titles are typically compilations of McSweeney's works either from print or online sources. The publisher of the works is listed at the end. *''McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales'' by

(2003,

Vintage Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...

) *''Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans'' by

(2004,

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

) *''McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories'' by Michael Chabon (2004, Vintage) *''Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans'' by Dave Eggers (2005, Vintage) *''The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes'' (2008, Vintage) *''Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists'' (2006, Vintage) *''Greetings from the Ocean's Sweaty Face: 100 McSweeney's Postcards'' (2009,

Chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

)

Reception

McSweeney's was named by ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' as the country's seventh most innovative media company in 2012. McSweeney's literary journal is a three-time winner and eight-time finalist for the National Magazine Award for Fiction. In contrast, in 2001, the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

noted "The McSweeneyites may be the current emperors of cool, but they're starting to need some new clothes." In 2019, Vida named McSweeney's Quarterly literary journal as the magazine publishing the highest percentage of women's and trans voices—71%—compared to their magazine peers. In 2021, Axios reported that readership tripled across its web and print publications.

826 Valencia Publications

These titles are releases of/by non-profit organization

826 Valencia 826 Valencia is a non-profit organization in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, United States, dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. It was ...

, published by McSweeney's/826. *''826 Quarterly Vol. 1'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2003/05/01 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 2'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2003/09/01 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 3'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2004/09/01 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 4'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2005/05/01 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 5'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2005/10/28 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 6'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2006/10/01 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 7'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2007/10/28 *''826 Quarterly Vol. 8'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia 2007/11/28 *''826nyc Review: Issue One'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia / Seeley, Scott / Potts, Sam 2005/08/01 *''826nyc Review: Issue Two'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia / Seeley, Scott / Potts, Sam 2006/06/01 *''826nyc Review: Issue Three'' Students in Conjunction With 826 Valencia / Seeley, Scott / Potts, Sam 2008/09/28 *''826NYC Art Show: A Limited Edition Catalog of 23 Original Pieces by Prominent Contemporary Artists'' 826NYC (EDT) 2007/08/28

References

External links

Official website
a 2001 review of everything McSweeney's from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' * A.O. Scott's ''New York Times'
Believers
2005 on McSweeney's and '' n+1'' *

Stephen Amidon Stephen Amidon (born 1959) is an American author and critic. Life and career Amidon was born in Chicago. He grew up on the East Coast of the United States of America, including a spell in Columbia, Maryland, which served as the inspiration for hi ...

''Sunday Times'',
Their Master's Voice: The Rise and Rise of Brand McSweeney's
, February 3, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcsweeneys Book publishing companies based in San Francisco Magazine publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in California