McSWEENEY’S QUARTERLY CONCERN SUBSCRIPTION

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“A key barometer of the literary climate.”
—The New York Times

“An enduring literary presence.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Brilliant and always surprising.”
—Detroit Free Press

A three-time winner and nine-time finalist of the National Magazine Award for fiction. Get caught up here.

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern began in 1998 as a literary journal that published only works rejected by other magazines. That rule was soon abandoned, and since then McSweeney’s has attracted some of the finest writers in the world, from George Saunders and Lydia Davis, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and David Foster Wallace. Recent issues have featured work by Tommy Orange, Hanif Abdurraqib, Lisa Taddeo, Mimi Lok, and Lesley Nneka Arimah. At the same time, the journal continues to be a major home for new and unpublished writers; we’re committed to publishing exciting fiction regardless of pedigree.

Each issue is completely redesigned—a unique work of art. Some issues are hardcovers, some are paperbacks, one issue came in a box shaped like a sweaty human head, one was disguised as a bag of party balloons, one looked like a pile of junk mail.

McSweeney’s has won multiple literary awards, including three National Magazine Awards for fiction, and has had numerous stories appear in The Best American Magazine Writing, the O. Henry Awards anthologies, and The Best American Short Stories. Design awards given to the quarterly include the AIGA 50 Books Award, the AIGA 365 Illustration Award, and the Print Design Regional Award.

Here’s what we’ve got up our collective sleeve for the future:

McSweeney’s 76: Aftershocks
McSweeney’s 76: Aftershocks is a collection of contemporary Syrian prose—short stories, novel excerpts, and plays—that chronicles the literal and metaphorical earthquakes that haunt the Syrian people. Guest-edited by acclaimed Syrian American journalist Alia Malek, and encompassing the work of eight Arabic translators and sixteen Syrian writers (some of which have never before been translated in English), these contributors write across diasporic and refugee experiences, as well as from inside present-day Syria. In these pages, skeletons fall in love, Damascus alleys become time portals, letters tucked in bullet wounds reanimate the dead, minarets gush blood, and photographs become more human than humans. The requisite actors in these stories, and in any conflict (and crime)—victim, killer, survivor—are blurred and intimate. Magical realism, the absurd, and the surreal course through these pages. These stories ask us to imagine the unimaginable. They ask not “what is real?” but rather “how can this be real?”

And then?
Keep an eye out for three more issues of the thrilling and innovative collections of cutting-edge literary content that readers of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern have come to expect for over two and a half decades.

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Praise for McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern

“There are few examples in publishing that equal the care and inventiveness McSweeney’s offers their readers—the industry at large should take note. I return to past issues more than most of the tomes on my shelves any time I need to re-spark my belief in publishing, in stories, in people.”
—Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston, IL

“The first bona fide literary movement in decades.”
—Slate

“Ever shape-shifting and ambitious, McSweeney’s has redefined what a literary institution can be. Their commitment to publishing strong, strange voices and stories from the periphery has always been an inspiration and I’m always excited to see what they’ll do next.”
—Catherine Lacey, McSweeney’s contributor and author of The Answers

“McSweeney’s is so much more than a magazine; it’s a vital part of our culture.”
—Geoff Dyer, McSweeney’s contributor and author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and Otherwise Known as the Human Condition

“Some magazines are comfort reads. We turn to them because we can almost predict, issue to issue, what and even who will appear in them. But others, like McSweeney’s, are challenge reads. They’re feverishly inventive, discomfortingly surprising, and therefore among the best reminders that we are actually alive. I love shouting at McSweeney’s, laughing with it, and rolling my eyes at myself while the magazine reads me like a deceptively perceptive carnival psychic.”
—John D’Agata, author of Halls of Fame and About a Mountain

“I’m incredibly grateful for the existence of McSweeney’s. Its embrace of world literature is completely unique, lucid, knowing and indispensable.”
—Francisco Goldman, McSweeney’s contributor and acclaimed author of The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle and The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?

Looking to get caught up? Bring home Issues 70–74 for one low price with our latest catch-up bundle. To view individual back issues, click here. For a combination subscription to both McSweeney’s Quarterly and Illustoria magazine for young readers, click here. For a combination subscription to both McSweeney’s Quarterly and our New Release Subscription, click here.

IMPORTANT LOGISTICAL INFORMATION: Subscriptions placed before February 1, 2025, will begin McSweeney’s 76: Aftershocks. All subscriptions to McSweeney’s Quarterly automatically renew after four issues, at 15% off the price of a regular sub (currently $80.75) plus shipping. In the event of any future rate changes, we will notify you via email. If you’d like to cancel your subscription at any time prior to its auto-renewal, you can log in to your account and adjust your subscription settings. Or send an email to custservice@mcsweeneys.net with the subject line “End Quarterly Autorenew.” Refunds will be accepted only up until the first issue of your renewal is shipped. If you’d like to give the Quarterly Concern as a one-time gift, purchase a gift subscription here. Any subscription purchased with the “gift” option marked at checkout will not be enrolled in autorenew.

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