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McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #67
McSweeney's Issue 67
Fasten your seatbelts. Sound the alarm. Hot on the heels of the best-selling McSweeney's 66 comes the latest issue of our nine-time National Magazine Award-finalist McSweeney's Quarterly . Prepare yourself for McSweeney's Issue 67 . Tear open this thrilling three-volume issue to find original stories by John Brandon and Eider Rodríguez ; letters from Shelly Oria and Diana Spechler ; a collection of poems by bus driver Sasha Pearl , composed on her lunch breaks (and introduced by Samantha Hunt ); and so much more, all inside a series of interconnected cover illustrations by French artist Yann Le Bec that culminate in a standalone illustrated booklet. Steady yourself, readers--the time has come for another unforgettable issue of McSweeney's Quarterly . A three-time winner and nine-time finalist of the National Magazine Award for fiction, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction .
- GenresPoetryShort Stories
223 pages, Paperback
Published August 4, 2022
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 11, 2022
Fate brought me to the McSweeney’s experience.
Last spring, we spent a couple of weekends sorting and reshelving all of the books in our home. It was glaringly obvious we were missing many books in our Stephen King collection. Four months later and I had this thought going through my mind as I worked through a difficult reread of a DNF on my list, Infinite Jest. One evening I dipped out on the reading (avoided is more the word) to hunt down missing items. A few clicks in and the short story “Willie the Weirdo” (McSweeney’s 66) popped up. I had never heard of the source so down the rabbit hole I went, which led me to the realization that the founder of McSweeney’s (Dave Eggers) was the person who wrote the foreword to the book I was currently reading. Mind blown. I knew in that moment I had to subscribe to the Quarterly Concern because fate demanded it.
My first delivery contained the following:
A lemon yellow short story collection. This one was the thicker of the three and it contained letters, four short stories and one illustrated story. Not all were great, but most were entertaining.
A pumpkin orange pamphlet. This one contained a few pages of illustrations. The reluctant man caught my eye.
A midnight blue book of poems. This one was written by a bus driver while she lived each day of her life. I absolutely loved it. She plucked the most perfect words out of the sky and placed them expertly where they would have the most impact.
Five stars because fate earned it.
Last spring, we spent a couple of weekends sorting and reshelving all of the books in our home. It was glaringly obvious we were missing many books in our Stephen King collection. Four months later and I had this thought going through my mind as I worked through a difficult reread of a DNF on my list, Infinite Jest. One evening I dipped out on the reading (avoided is more the word) to hunt down missing items. A few clicks in and the short story “Willie the Weirdo” (McSweeney’s 66) popped up. I had never heard of the source so down the rabbit hole I went, which led me to the realization that the founder of McSweeney’s (Dave Eggers) was the person who wrote the foreword to the book I was currently reading. Mind blown. I knew in that moment I had to subscribe to the Quarterly Concern because fate demanded it.
My first delivery contained the following:
A lemon yellow short story collection. This one was the thicker of the three and it contained letters, four short stories and one illustrated story. Not all were great, but most were entertaining.
A pumpkin orange pamphlet. This one contained a few pages of illustrations. The reluctant man caught my eye.
A midnight blue book of poems. This one was written by a bus driver while she lived each day of her life. I absolutely loved it. She plucked the most perfect words out of the sky and placed them expertly where they would have the most impact.
Five stars because fate earned it.
August 31, 2022
Very good and mercifully short issue. Would give 4.5 stars if possible, but alas, it is not possible.
The Sasha Pearl book of poems was unfuckwithable. That alone is worth 5 stars, but the main book dragged it down.
Some of the writing published every issue becomes predictable and samey, as if the authors all had the same writing professor. It’s weird how homogeneous it all feels sometimes. I want more rough edges, more outlandish stories, less stories that should be left in therapists’ notebooks. Childhood is the not the wellspring of gonzo sturm und drang everyone seems to think it is. Or maybe it is, but requires thoughtful retelling? Maybe I could judge if I ever finished that book I spent years writing and thinking would be my Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Maybe I should just make little chapbooks of the highlights and shut up.
This review would be funny if I were drunk, but instead it’s sad, sobering up on the doorstep of 49.
The Sasha Pearl book of poems was unfuckwithable. That alone is worth 5 stars, but the main book dragged it down.
Some of the writing published every issue becomes predictable and samey, as if the authors all had the same writing professor. It’s weird how homogeneous it all feels sometimes. I want more rough edges, more outlandish stories, less stories that should be left in therapists’ notebooks. Childhood is the not the wellspring of gonzo sturm und drang everyone seems to think it is. Or maybe it is, but requires thoughtful retelling? Maybe I could judge if I ever finished that book I spent years writing and thinking would be my Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Maybe I should just make little chapbooks of the highlights and shut up.
This review would be funny if I were drunk, but instead it’s sad, sobering up on the doorstep of 49.
November 11, 2025
Seems like it may be the norm for the letters to surpass the stories in McSweeney's QC, as they do in #67. The thin separate volume of poems by Sasha Pearl, bus driver, were however image-provoking and beautifully constructed.
October 17, 2022
A slim edition but pretty good. Some amusing stories and a series of short poems written from the point of view of a school bus driver.
The short comic was a bit pointless though
The short comic was a bit pointless though
August 9, 2022
This is one of the shortest McSweeney’s issues I can remember but it was definitely high quality. I wish there was some way that the three pieces were bound together from an aesthetic standpoint. The poems by the bus driver were really spectacular.
May 30, 2023
How does one review a magazine that is really three booklets? One begins by admitting that one of McSweeney's strengths is refusing to even be the same thing from issue to issue. That is a significant reason why I have subscribed to it, ever since I discovered the second volume on the bookstore shelf.
I'll begin with the bus poems of Sasha Pearl, which I found entertaining, and which I will now use as an example of generating poetry from personal observation of everyday life, with an emphasis on POV. I particularly adored the line:
Watering dead plants is my Achilles' dick.
which I think is brilliant.
Next the graphic booklet by Yann Le Bec called "Picnic." I don't recognize the sculpture in the background, so I can't identify the place, but the non-dialogued panels portray a group of people breaking into a fenced and gated public area at night, to have a picnic. They come with bolt cutters, picnic baskets, wine and wineglasses. It's obviously transgressive, but it doesn't speak to me.
In the text booklet the letters are as amusing as always. Has McSweeney's published a Complete Letters volume yet? I'll have to look.
I especially liked Emma Hooper's "Brigit" and was especially challenged by Sam Munson's "Keep Your Mouth Shut." "Brigit" is about lack of communication and the dangers of asking for spells to cure us. Cleverly structured, painful at the end.
The Munson is an intriguing tale of corruption by a not-very-bright enabler, an employee of the crooked business. It is well composed, and a bit bizarre, but what challenges me is the point of it all. I didn't hit on the piece's wavelength, so I have concluded that it is clever but pointless. I'm not happy thinking that, but ...
It should be noted that this whole issue appears to be free of the word grimace, which shows editorial discernment.
Recommended.
I'll begin with the bus poems of Sasha Pearl, which I found entertaining, and which I will now use as an example of generating poetry from personal observation of everyday life, with an emphasis on POV. I particularly adored the line:
Watering dead plants is my Achilles' dick.
which I think is brilliant.
Next the graphic booklet by Yann Le Bec called "Picnic." I don't recognize the sculpture in the background, so I can't identify the place, but the non-dialogued panels portray a group of people breaking into a fenced and gated public area at night, to have a picnic. They come with bolt cutters, picnic baskets, wine and wineglasses. It's obviously transgressive, but it doesn't speak to me.
In the text booklet the letters are as amusing as always. Has McSweeney's published a Complete Letters volume yet? I'll have to look.
I especially liked Emma Hooper's "Brigit" and was especially challenged by Sam Munson's "Keep Your Mouth Shut." "Brigit" is about lack of communication and the dangers of asking for spells to cure us. Cleverly structured, painful at the end.
The Munson is an intriguing tale of corruption by a not-very-bright enabler, an employee of the crooked business. It is well composed, and a bit bizarre, but what challenges me is the point of it all. I didn't hit on the piece's wavelength, so I have concluded that it is clever but pointless. I'm not happy thinking that, but ...
It should be noted that this whole issue appears to be free of the word grimace, which shows editorial discernment.
Recommended.
January 29, 2023
I am new to McSweeney’s having read only 2 or 3 issues with this being my most recent, but I’m hooked. There are always some gems in each issue. There are also some works that are just OK in terms of ideas or storyline, although all of the contributions are formally well written. The letters are almost all fantastic. I cannot figure out how the letters relate to anything published in the last issue, but the letters themselves tell good stories. This issue is like the others - avant garde, hip, well written, containing some real surprises (like the bus poems and comic with this issue), with some contributions that are just OK. It should be a 4.25 to 4.50, but there is no way to grade it that finely. I’m going to buy the next issue now.
December 6, 2022
There are just five short stories that make up issue 67 from McSweeney’s, and while there were no homeruns, all of them were solid reading. The three I liked most were Khadijah Number Two, by Hilal Isler, Vintage, by John Brandon, and What Was Expected of Me, by Eider Rodriguez. I also liked the letter to the editor from writer Leslie Ylinen, and count it among the highlights. Interesting in a Paterson sort of way was the separate booklet Bus Poems and II Plus, by Sasha Pearl, a truck driver by day, but it never rose to the level of the poems of the fictional bus driver and artistry in that movie. Not worthy of separate booklet was the graphic art piece Picnic, by Yann Le Bec.
October 22, 2023
A tighter, slimmer selection of McSweeney's pieces, with several excellent selections. My favorite of the set, Hilal Isler's "Khadijah Number Two," is incredibly tight, well written and delves into issues of identity and finding one's way. The bonus volume, Sasha Pearl's "Bus Poems and II Plus," is also fun and gritty in the best of ways. Plus, this issue features one of my favorite McSweeney's covers.
December 31, 2022
This is just a review of Sasha Pearl's Bus Poems and II Plus. Wry, existential, and all about school buses. Loved this collection. Thank you once again, McSweeney's for finding artists who are quietly doing their thing.
"School transportation personnel
are the most snitch people on Earth."
"School transportation personnel
are the most snitch people on Earth."
March 25, 2023
McSweeney's is always a treat, but the Sasha Pearl poetry collection included in this one really made it exceptional. It made me laugh and made my heart hurt and made me want to get back into writing poetry.
July 30, 2022
As usual, an absolute page turner! Always brilliant writers. The book of poems that came with this edition, also fantastic and the very slim graphic novel made me want more. Bravo!
August 9, 2022
Strange, entertaining, unexpected - great issue from Timothy
October 3, 2022
Loved the bus poems, will have to read again.
April 23, 2023
“Bus Poems” and “Keep Your Mouth Shut” are standouts in this issue. Other stories didn’t engage me on all cylinders like those two did.
August 22, 2023
Sort of a mixed bag - a few really stunning ones, a few so-so. Worth the time for sure.
September 4, 2023
It’s kind of a standard issue of McSweeney’s - some great stories, some just okay ones. I especially liked Sasha Pearl’s book of poems about driving a school bus. McSweeney’s always entertains.
February 5, 2024
Didn’t read the whole thing but Sasha Pearl is a genius grateful to know such a talented force
May 9, 2023
An up and down collection of stories but bolstered heavily by one of the best poetry collections I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews