McSWEENEY’S AND eMUSIC RELEASE THIRD EXCLUSIVE

AUDIOBOOK: FIELD RECORDINGS: VOLUME 3

After-School Activities and Physical Education

NEW YORK, March 3, 2009 -- eMusic, the first retailer to offer audiobooks in the MP3 format, and McSweeney’s, the taste-making literary journal and book publisher, have united again to release the third exclusive audiobook based on stories from McSweeney’s authors.

McSweeney’s Field Recordings, the audiobook, is a collection of readings created specifically for and now available worldwide on eMusic. As with all eMusic audio books, it is available in the universally compatible MP3 format. In the third installment, After-School Activities and Physical Education, six authors ventured into the great outdoors to read and record their short stories about bullies, juvies, teachers, young love, and eavesdropping.

Volume 3 includes Stephen Elliott, the author of six books including Happy Baby, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lion Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and the Village Voice. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006.”

Also in this volume is Peter Orner, whose selection Pampkin’s Lament is included in the prestigious Pushcart Prize – Best of the Small Presses anthology. Orner’s short fiction has been featured in the Atlantic Monthly and the Paris Review. The Boston Globe praised Orner’s debut novel, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikonogo, as a work that catapulted him to “the first rank of American writers.”

McSweeney’s will continue to publish future chapters of Field Recordings with eMusic on a quarterly basis.

McSweeney’s Field Recordings: Volume 3 includes:

K. Kvashay-Boyle: St. Chola (from McSweeney’s Issue 9) K. Kvashay-Boyle reads from the schoolyard of the middle school where her story takes place. “St. Chola” brings us the story of a young Muslim girl struggling to be true to her culture and identity, while trying to make it as an American teenager.

Stephen Elliott: Forefathers (from McSweeney’s Issue 12) A twenty-something returns to the juvenile detention facility where he spent his childhood. A thirteen-year-old first-time robber returns to the scene of the crime. In “forefathers”—read while on a walk to San Francisco’s Dolores Park—Stephen Elliott explores one man’s struggle to pass on the lessons he has learned.

Rachel Sherman: The Neutered Bulldog (from McSweeney’s Issue 12) From Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Rachel Sherman reads a story of a philandering teacher. The joyful shrieks of children playing belie the seriousness and unsettling twists of Sherman’s story.

Adam Levin: Considering the Bittersweet End of Susan Falls (from McSweeney’s Issue 16) Our narrator Adam Levin sits on “something of a balcony” in Chicago with his girlfriend as he reads his tragic story of the brilliant Susan Falls. Listener’s tip! At the part where the narrative and Susan’s homework assignment are being read at the same time, listen to just your right earphone to hear the narrative, and just the left earphone to hear Susan’s thoughts on the biblical story of Adam and David. Don’t worry; this will make sense when you get there.

Caren Beilin: I’m the Boss So Do What I Say (McSweeney’s Issue 23) Caren Beilin puts our other writers’ outdoorsmanship to shame. She reports from Rock Creek, just outside Missoula, Montana, where she and her buddies have settled in for a day of fly-fishing and short story reading. “I’m the Boss So Do What I Say” is a tale of pan-socioeconomic summer love, teenage recklessness, and a pesky stain that won’t come out no matter what our young protagonists try.

Peter Orner: Pampkin’s Lament (McSweeney’s Issue 21) Peter harnessed the formidable thespian talents of three McSweeney’s staffers to bring “Pampkin’s Lament” to life. Late at night, a young boy listens from the staircase as his father consoles gubernatorial candidate Mike Pampkin, whose wife has decided to leave him. With Heidi Meredith, Brian McMullen, and Andrew Leland reading the story’s dialogue, this track has all the feel of an old-timey radio track being read from a park “where people bring their dogs to relieve themselves.”

About eMusic Audiobooks
eMusic offers thousands of audiobooks from major publishers including Blackstone Audio, Hachette, Naxos audiobooks, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster. among others. eMusic audiobooks are encoded in high-quality 64 Kbps bit rate -- twice the audio quality available from iTunes and Audible. As with its music service, eMusic offers audiobooks at a great value. Customers can sign up for monthly subscriptions priced at $9.99 for one book or $19.99 for two books — and get one bonus book as part of an introductory offer. eMusic audiobooks subscription plans represent a considerable discount from the cost of physical audiobooks, which typically retail for $20 - $40, and are far more convenient, as physical products often include at least four and sometimes more than 20 CDs.

About eMusic
eMusic (www.eMusic.com) is the internet's corner music store. It offers a deeper, more personal alternative to mass market digital music retailers by combining the best of ecommerce, community and editorial content to create a more immersive and authentic music experience. State-of-the-art recommendations, award-winning editorial and social media features provide the most musical context for an enthusiastic community of music fans, renowned experts, record labels, artists and employees. Customers are encouraged to explore music downloads with subscription pricing that rewards discovery at a better value than any legal competitor. eMusic also sells downloadable audio books from all major audio book publishers. Based in New York with an office in London, eMusic is available in the U.S., Canada and 26 E.U. nations. eMusic.com Inc. is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.

About McSweeney’s
McSweeney’s is an independent publishing company based in San Francisco. Its projects include McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, a literary journal; The Believer, a monthly magazine; Wholphin, a quarterly collection of short films; Voice of Witness, a series of social-justice oral histories; and McSweeney’s Books, including works by Nick Hornby, William T. Vollmann, Lydia Davis, Lemony Snicket, Michael Chabon, and Salvador Plascencia. McSweeney’s literary and design work has been honored by the O. Henry Awards, the Best American Short Stories, the National Magazine Awards, the National Book Critics Circle, the America Institute of Graphic Arts, the Independent Press Awards, and the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial.

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