N E W I S S U E I S O U T ;
I T I S O U R F I F T H
A N D W E L I K E I T .
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As many of you know, the new issue of our print version is out, and by
now is in most stores. This issue is a hardcover book, and features four
different dust jackets. One dust jacket has on it a man who seems to be
suffering from terrible skin lesions. The second cover looks very much
like the cover of Issue No. 1, with the addition of a medical drawing of
a severed arm. The third cover is blank, with all of its images hiding
on the back. Hiding from the bad people. The last cover is just red. Or,
if you will, simply red.
In addition, under each dust jacket is a different cover. One features
pictures of Ted Koppel. One features new work by Susan Minot. And a
third features a variation on the second cover, described above, though
this version is legible only with aid of mirror. This inner cover also
is featured under the red dust jacket.
The red dust jacket is actually not yet available. It was printed, but
we messed it up, and thus it was reprinted. It will be available soon.
In this issue, priced reasonably at $16, no matter its cover, you will
find many many good things, including the following:
"The Hypnotist's Trailer" by Ann Cummins
This might be the best short story we have yet published. It is gripping
and odd and takes place in a trailer and involves hypnotism. Do not miss
it.
The Observers, by Paul LaFarge
This story is probably the most fully-realized story we have ever had the
pleasure of presenting. It is about a man building an observatory, and
it is very funny, and very... very... how do you say in English? — touching.
LaFarge is a very assured writer, a very smooth writer. He
makes one happy when one is reading his words.
"Marie Curie, Honorable Woman," by Lydia Davis
This is a very amazing and strange piece about Madame Curie. There is an
illuminating explanation of its genesis in the letters section of this
issue. Lydia Davis is a mad genius for you.
"This We Came to Know Afterwards," by Susan Minot
A very powerful piece of journalism by Ms. Minot, who is known of course
for her novels. This piece is about children in Uganda who have been
abducted by the guerillas of the Lord's Resistance Army and made to do
horrible things. We are very proud to have published this piece, and we
hope you will read it.
"Mr. Squishy," by Elizabeth Klemm
This is a very long and very difficult and very rewarding piece by a new
Chicago writer who has heretofore published but one story. We hope you
will like it.
Interview with Ted Koppel, by Sarah Vowell
Like an appealing but no-nonsense attack dog, Ms. Vowell keeps Koppel on
the defensive by asking him only questions about that subject on which
he has heretofore been so circumspect: Marcus Aurelius's /Meditations./
"Literary Enhancement Through Food Intake," by Ben Marcus (no relation)
Mr. Marcus, author of The Age of Wire and String, has made something
here that demands many readings. Mr. Marcus is doing things that many of
us are afraid to do.
"Solicitation," by RJ Curtis.
Ms. Curtis is someone who we would like to publish in every issue. This
is her first story for us. She is still in school even, but is very good
already. Her sentences are plain but beautiful, economical but strange
and generous. You will see when you see.
Excerpts from new work by Rodney Rothman
Rodney Rothman, formerly the head writer for David Letterman's show,
here presents his attempts to infiltrate the world of print-on-demand
publishing, offering excerpts from titles such as:
The Rodney Rothman Bible in Italics
The Rodney Rothman Underlined Bible in Italics
The Rodney Rothman Underlined Holy Bible in Small-cap Outline Italics
"Soot," by Chad Willenborg
This is a very moving and elegantly written story. It takes place in
southern Illinois, though Mr. Willenborg now lives in Philadelphia.
"The Days Here," by Kelly Feeney
Like many of the stories in this issue, this one came through the mail,
unsolicited. We have read this story eleven times, and we still love it
much like we would if it were a favorite photograph that we might stare
at and stare at, even though the photograph is not necessarily an
entirely pleasant photograph. Ms. Feeney has done something great here.
The rhythm of it!
"Solresol, the Universal Musical Language," by Paul Collins
This is the latest installment in his series of profiles of history's
most brilliant and ultimately failed eccentrics. Please note that
Collins's collection of profiles, due out in spring, will now be called
Banvard's Folly: Tales of Reknowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and
Rotten Luck.
"Mother May I," by Jason Ockert
Another extraordinary new voice, one with a very warm and funny and
lyrical brush rendering a very bleak picture. That is, if voices could
hold brushes, and if brushes could render pictures — two things that
are not yet possible, due to the exasperating inaction of the fatcats of
Washington.
Also look for:
J. Robert Lennon's disturbing and as-usual-silkenly-written "The
Accursed Items"
Steven Barthelme's hard-biting "The New South: Writing the Newsweek
Short Story."
Joshuah Bearman has again interviewed his father, this time about his
work on Mars
Colleen Werthmann takes the idea of the Sex Story That Loses Its Way and
writes a perfect thing, involving firemen and fires and hoses and young
virgins, and, finally, archaelogy. Do not miss the end.
Alastair Reid, long a translator of the work of Borges, here presents a
short anecdote about that writer-man
More Convergences by the irrepressible and neat-bearded Lawrence L.M.
Weschler, Jr.
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That is all. As always, should you want to buy a copy and cannot find it
in your local shop, please direct them to us and we will help them stock
it. Thank you for your help and interest.
OTHER McSWEENEY'S STORIES:
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The Birdwatcherist By Peter Bebergal
A Clarification By Vali Chandrasekaran
Some of the Things They Died of in Nineteenth-Century Santa Barbara, California By Rose Gowen
A Spoken-Word Poem for America By Neal Pollack
On Message By Paul Maliszewski
Red dot denotes content that is new today.
Black dot denotes newish content.