About
McSWEENEY’S

McSweeney’s began in 1998 as a literary journal, edited by Dave Eggers, that published only works rejected by other magazines. But after the first issue, the journal began to publish pieces primarily written with McSweeney’s in mind. Since then, McSweeney’s has attracted works from some of the finest writers in the country, including Denis Johnson, William T. Vollmann, Rick Moody, Joyce Carol Oates, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Ben Marcus, Susan Straight, Roddy Doyle, T.C. Boyle, Steven Millhauser, Gabe Hudson, Robert Coover, Ann Beattie, and many others.

Today, McSweeney’s has grown to be one of the country’s best-read and widely-circulated literary journals, with an expanding, loyal subscriber base and strong independent bookstore following. As a small publishing house, McSweeney’s is committed to finding new voices—Gabe Hudson, Paul Collins, Neal Pollack, J.T. Leroy, John Hodgman, Amy Fusselman, Salvador Plascencia and Sean Wilsey are among those whose early work appeared in McSweeney’s—and promoting the work of gifted but underappreciated writers, such as Lydia Davis and Stephen Dixon.

Recent books and journals have appeared on bestseller lists around the country and have won multiple literary and design awards, including stories selected for the Best American Poetry, Best American Travel Writing, the O. Henry Awards, and the Best American Short Stories. Two of our books were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Design awards include AIGA 50 Books Award, AIGA 365 Illustration Award, and the Print Design Regional Award. McSweeney’s books have appeared in design exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum and the Pasadena Museum.

The many, very smallish
DIVISIONS

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern continues to publish on a roughly quarterly schedule, and each issue is markedly different from its predecessors in terms of design and editorial focus.

McSweeney’s Books has published over thirty-five titles, including Nick Hornby’s Songbook, How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers, and William T. Vollmann’s 3,300-page treatise on violence, Rising Up and Rising Down. Recent books have been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Independent Press Awards, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at the Smithsonian. Our list is getting longer and longer, but we continue our commitment to publishing books we love and hope you will love too.

Within McSweeney’s Books, we have four imprints. McSweeney’s Rectangulars is our new fiction series, featuring original works by writers varying wildly in style and subject matter, but all pushing the form forward.  Believer Books collects works from some of the magazine’s most popular contributors, such as Nick Hornby, Jim Shepard, and Javier Marías; in addition, Believer Books introduces books from around the non-English-speaking world, publishing them in English for the first time. The Collins Library is our series of handsome reprints of forgotten classics, edited by Paul Collins, a good and brilliant man. McSweeney’s Irregulars is our newest addition, a collection of irregular books of irregular content appearing at irregular intervals. Most of the Irregulars aim to be funny.

The Believer is our monthly magazine, exploring the interconnected worlds of books, music, politics, and art—an unpredictable but always pleasing collection of long essays, book reviews, interviews, and small doodles. Regular contributors include Rick Moody, Nick Hornby, Amy Sedaris, and Michel Houellbecq.

Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine featuring short films, documentaries, animation, and instructional videos that have not, for whatever reason, found wide release. Recent issues of Wholphin have included films by Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Miranda July, Miguel Arteta, Errol Morris, and Steven Soderbergh, and performances from John C. Reilly, Selma Blair, Patton Oswalt, Andy Richter, a monkey-faced eel, and many others.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is our scrappy internet arm. The website offers original content daily, along with event listings, a McSweeney’s store, reviews of new foods, and locations of bookstores that carry McSweeney’s books. We recently received the national Webby Award for Best Writing.