The deadline for the 2008 Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, a $2,500 grant given to a woman writer of 32 years or younger, is this Thursday, May 15. For more information, click here. - - - -

Issue No. 4 T I M O T H Y   M c S W E E N E Y ' S T R Y I N G ,   T R Y I N G ,   T R Y I N G , T R Y I N G ,   T R Y I N G . - - - - This issue contains 312 pages, which is more than previous issues, though in this case the pages are not all bound together. This issue actually starts with a box, within which are fourteen separate booklets, most of the stories having been granted their own binding and color covers. They look very good. If you would like to buy one through your local bookstore and they do not carry our title, please urge them to do so, and tell them that we are available through any number of fine distributors. Now, a rundown of the issue's contents: Rachel Cohen: "A Chance Meeting" [Poignant and illuminating discussion of a meeting that never happened -- between Willa Cather and Katherine Anne Porter. 16 pages] George Saunders: "Four Institutional Monologues" [A new story-cycle. 16 pages] Ben Miller: "Dar(e)apy" [Short story involving cooking oil and imminent fire. 16 pages] Lawrence Weschler: "Two Further Convergences" [Just as the title suggests. Includes two color foldouts. 8 pages] Sheila Heti: "The Middle Tales" [Five stories by this Toronto writer, who lives at home with her dad and brother. 16 pages] Haruki Murakami: "Dabchick" [Short story involving tunnels and passwords. 12 page] Rick Moody: "The Double Zero" [A cover version of Sherwood Anderson's "The Egg." 16 pages] Jonathan Lethem: "K Is for Fake" [A version of "The Trial." 16 pages] Paul Maliszewski: "Paperback Nabokov" [An investigative essay exploring that author's endless efforts, mostly in vain, to improve the covers of his books, in particular their paperback incarnations. With four color pages of rare paperback covers, and an appendix of related correspondence. 32 pages] Paul Collins: "Symmes Hole" [Another in Mr. Collins's series of profiles of history's notable (and failed) dreamers. This one recounts the life of a certain Mr. Symmes, who spent decades trying to convince the world that there was another, below our own, accessible via the North Pole. 16 pages] Lydia Davis: "A Mown Lawn" [A meditation on those three words. 8 pages, sort of] Denis Johnson: "Hellhound on My Trail" [A three-act play. Very hard to summarize. 80 pages] Issue also contains a booklet, of 48 pages, which contains new, short work from these people, among others: Sarah Vowell, Arthur Bradford, Sean Wilsey, J. Robert Lennon, Amy Fusselman, Nicholas Laughlin, Dan Pope, Gabe Hudson, Marcy Dermansky, the very fine John Warner and a very funny piece by a Mr. Jason Eaton. On the back cover is "More Notes on Revising Last Night's Dream," a perfect little thing by Ben Greenman. There are also many drawings of ears and severed hands. Thank you.

- - - - MAIN PAGE   |   ARCHIVES   Memories of Amanda Davis   Red dot denotes content that is new today. Black dot denotes newish content. McSWEENEY'S STORE SUBSCRIBE TO: McSWEENEY'S THE BELIEVER WHOLPHIN FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: FOR BOOKS FOR THE QUARTERLY FOR THE WEBSITE FOR WHOLPHIN McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS CONTACT US - - - - LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S LISTS McSWEENEY'S PREDICTS McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS NEW WHOLPHIN FILM DAN LIEBERT, VERBAL CARTOONIST JOKES BY BRIAN BEATTY REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD DISPATCHES FROM MOSCOW SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT? DISPATCHES FROM THE ANACOSTIA THE WINNER'S CIRCLE WITH ERIC FEEZELL BEN GREENMAN'S FAKE CELEBRITY MUSICALS DISPATCHES FROM A HUMANITARIAN JOURNALIST DISPATCHES FROM IRAQ SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES PHILIP GRAHAM SPENDS A YEAR IN LISBON STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE DISPATCHES FROM THE NAPOLEONIC WARS AT THE MET KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE LAWRENCE WESCHLER'S EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST ABOUT WHAT IS THE WHAT ABOUT BOWL OF CHERRIES ABOUT COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS ABOUT JOHN BRANDON'S ARKANSAS LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY DISPATCHES FROM ADJUNCT FACULTY AT A LARGE STATE UNIVERSITY ADVICE FROM A PERSON WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY DISPATCHES FROM THE NBA ENTERTAINMENT LEAGUE JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES B.R. COHEN'S ANNALS OF SCIENCE INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN MICHAEL IAN BLACK IS A VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITY DISPATCHES FROM ROY KESEY, AN AMERICAN GUY MARRIED TO A PERUVIAN DIPLOMAT LIVING IN CHINA STEPHEN ELLIOTT'S POKER REPORT - - - - ADDITIONAL MATERIAL