Local publishing house McSweeney's made its name publishing fiction, but has long since diversified with offerings such as the quarterly DVD magazine Wholphin and oral history series Voice of Witness.

But the McSweeney's family isn't done growing: in 2011, it will launch food and children's book imprints. 

Recently, chef David Chang of Momofuku fame in New York announced that his quarterly project, Lucky Peach, will have a print component done by McSweeney's as well as an iPad app produced by Zero Point Zero, the company responsible for Anthony Bourdain's TV show. As Publisher's Weekly pointed out, a preview of that content could be found in McSweeney's newspaper experiment, the San Francisco Panorama, which featured a gorgeous graphic on how to make Chang's famous ramen.

McSweeney's

And that's not the only thing cooking (sorry). In addition to Chang's projects, a cookbook written by Mission Street Food (now Mission Chinese Food) pop-up impresarios Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz will be published in late June. Titled "Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant," it will feature tips for running a charitable food business alongside recipes — and, in keeping with their unique business model of giving a part of the profits to different nonprofit groups, a portion of the book's $30 price will go to charity. 

The children's book spin-off, McSweeney's McMullens, will be doing 10 books in the coming year, starting with four released in May. Its namesake, McSweeney's editor and art director Brian McMullen, will be heading up editing, art direction and various "nitty-gritty" production responsibilities, but the whole staff will be involved, "as they are with every McSweeney's project."

McSweeney's

An exclusive look at the new logo of the forthcoming children's book imprint, McSweeney's McMullens

And the name? "[McSweeney's founder] Dave Eggers proposed it," McMullen said in an e-mail. "I think he liked the sound of all those Ms and Cs together. I consulted my wife Katie and my two-year-old son Alton, and they said OK, so here we are."

Reached by e-mail, co-publisher Chris Ying affirmed that the Panorama newspaper was the inspiration for the publishing house's collaboration with Chang. "The imprint sprang fully formed from the head of the San Francisco Panorama," he wrote. "I cooked through college, so I've had an abiding interest in food and food-writing, as do many of the people on staff here. The success of the Panorama was the motivation we needed to step into the food-publishing world."

Food fans can expect between two and four titles this year. The imprint is, as yet, unnamed, although Ying hopes to have a monicker picked out by the end of Wednesday.

The new projects don't mark a dramatic departure for McSweeney's, but do showcase some of the interests dear to the small staff. Ying, for instance, roasted a pig outside the company's Mission District office upon the launch of the Panorama. And it's not quite an imprint, but Jesse Nathan, for instance, one of the editors of the Panorama and a frequent Believer contributor, will be heading up new efforts by McSweeney's to publish poetry.

Readers can expect nonstandard takes on the cookbook and children's publishing genres. No age range or specific populations will be targeted: McMullen, when asked whom the children's books would be written for, said that this statement would be published on the copyright page of each book: "The McSweeney’s McMullens will find and publish great books — new and old — for individuals and families of all kinds."