The United States of McSweeney's Ten Years of Accidental Classics

Since 1998 McSweeney's Quarterly Concern has been emerging from various kitchens, attics and an old laundromat roughly four times a year - or definitely at least three. In those ten years, almost 100,000 stories have been submitted, usually in manila envelopes, mostly from unknown names living in unfamiliar corners. Approximately 400 of those stories were selected for publication. Eighteen of them appear here, wildly diverse in style and subject, from some of the finest writers of today and tomorrow. Several typos have been removed. 'The whole thing is driven by a slightly crazed exuberance which makes other literary magazines look like phone directories' - Mark Haddon 'Groundbreaking . . . the only place to be seen for would-be cult US novelists . . . a forum for innovation as well as established talent' - Observer