McSweeney's: a publishing company with heart

Recently I picked up a quarterly journal published by McSweeney's, which is my favorite publishing company in the world.   McSweeney's was founded by author Dave Eggers, whose book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was tremendously inspirational in helping me finish my own book.  They publish contemporary literature through various magazines, books, and a quarterly journal.  Just visit their web site and you can see all the amazing things they do.

They are affiliated with a few awesome non-profits like the 826 Tutoring Centers, which offer free tutoring and writing workshops for kids.

They also do something called Voice of Witness, whose goal is to illuminate human rights crises through oral history.

The first story in the quarterly issue of McSweeney's I'm currently reading is about a man who was killed by police on Palm Island, an aborigine community off the coast of Australia with 90 percent unemployment and extreme violence and poverty.  The short non-fiction piece was written by Chloe Hooper, who ultimately published a book about the issue called  The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island.

If you are looking for contemporary books and publications that are real, thought-provoking, and literary, look no further than McSweeney's.