THE WHOLE McSWEENEY’S PERIODICAL FAMILY (COMBO SUBSCRIPTION)

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This is the combo subscription for The Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly, and Illustoria magazine. To subscribe to any of these on their own, or for multiple variations thereof, click here.

“Ever shape-shifting and ambitious, McSweeney’s has redefined what a literary institution can be.”
—Catherine Lacey

“There are few examples in publishing that equal the care and inventiveness McSweeney’s offers their readers—the industry at large should take note.”
—Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston, IL

“Brilliant and always surprising.”
—Detroit Free Press

We love periodicals. You love periodicals. We could all use periodicals. Available to all for the first time, get all three of the official McSweeney’s-published periodicals in one compact (and economically-priced) subscription bundle: three issues of Illustoria, four issues of McSweeney’s Quarterly, and four issues of The Believer magazine.

From the newly resurrected, twelve-time National Magazine Award finalist Believer magazine; to the always cutting-edge, form-shattering, and award-winning behemoth that is McSweeney’s Quarterly; to the beloved imagination- and inspiration-inciting Illustoria (named a best gift for kids by the New York Times three years and running); satisfy every reader in your life and keep the unforgettable and award-winning content coming all year long.

Readers will receive::

Illustoria #25: Comics
Get ready to get sequential as we present our first-ever all-comics issue, featuring seventy-two pages entirely dedicated to the comic artform!

In our twenty-fifth issue, we dip into the immersive world of panel-format storytelling and all the world-building, character-developing, plot-twisting details. Check out interviews with our cover artist, Jillian Tamaki, and other series artists who share how they get ideas (and keep getting ideas) over time. Discover wordless comics, DIY comics, and autobiographical comics about real life. Feeling brave? Gather friends and try performing your own comic. Find all this and much more as you tear through this unforgettable unputdownable issue panel-by-panel.

McSweeney’s 75: First Fiction
In a June 2023 submission call for new work by never-before-published writers, McSweeney’s received thousands of submissions in a single month. The stories in this issue (our seventy-fifth, an almost unfathomable milestone) are the crème de la crème of that bounty.

Guest-edited by longtime McSweeney’s editor Eli Horowitz, our seventy-fifth issue contains ten radiant stories, each published as an individual booklet with stunning art by ten different artists. All ten booklets are collected inside a beautiful and sturdy and elaborately foil-stamped dossier-like case, which opens (rather extravagantly) to reveal a series of accordion pockets—each one containing a pair of booklets—and snaps shut (rather satisfyingly) with a magnetic closure. In these brilliant literary debuts there are fish guts, meteor hunters, military coups, ghost towns, and fake orphans. The stories, whose authors and settings span continents, dazzle in their originality of vision and voice. They announce themselves with bravado, excellence, and energy. In his introduction to the issue, Horowitz writes, “I’m not sure what set of circumstances allowed these wizards to escape previous publication—youth? shyness? vast conspiracies?—but the wait is over: they have arrived.” Get this issue for eternal bragging rights of being present at the ground floor of each of these ten writers’ sure-to-be-storied futures.

The Believer Issue 147
Inside Issue 147: Will McGrath tags along with a basketball team of Somali American teenagers as they journey from Minnesota to the Sunshine State for a national tournament; R. Emmet Sweeney describes the many attempts to adapt a bestselling 2,500-page Tamil epic for film; Mychal Denzel Smith turns to online chess after the loss of his mother leaves him unable to write; Sandy Ernest Allen traces our cultural depictions of electroshock therapy; and Boots Riley, in a sprawling interview with Annalee Newitz, discusses comic books, labor strikes, and conversations as art form. You’ll also find interviews with Kaveh Akbar, Kate Zambreno, Jack Stratton of trailblazing indie band Vulfpeck, and punk legend Kathleen Hanna; as well as two new poems by Eduardo C. Corral and Ruben Quesada that have been illustrated by artists Gabrielle Bell and Hartley Lin.

Find all this plus: Giri Nathan on the paranoia in M. Night Shyamalan’s weirdest film; Nick Hornby recommending, with some regret, reading material for Bruce Springsteen fans; and Carrie Brownstein returning to advise on the subject of “healthy” eating. And, as always, even more awaits within these ink-perfumed pages, including small-press book reviews, games, and a grand tour of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

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?”

The Believer Issue 148: The Art Issue
In The Believer’s 2024 Art Issue: Pepper Stetler reports from an art center for adults with intellectual disabilities that sees both creativity and work as fundamental human rights; Ross Simonini considers the immortal power of artistic persona; Nicole Lavelle profiles ceramicist Win Ng, cofounder of one of America’s first ever lifestyle brands; and, in an epistolary essay, Hilton Als writes about painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s inimitable use of color. We also have interviews with Annie Leibovitz, An-My Lê, Martine Syms, performance artist Michael Smith, and legendary muralist Judy Baca, plus a schema on Black models in Western art by Zaria Ware.

In our columns section, you’ll find Nick Hornby’s art-themed reading list, Chelsea Ryoko Wong’s daily routine, Monica Datta’s resurrection of Black Square by Kazimir Malevich, and Carrie Brownstein’s advice to a pet portraitist. On top of all that, and in honor of this special themed issue, every copy comes with a handily detachable, many-paged gift guide, featuring recommendations from artists, such as Marcel Dzama, Rebecca Morgan, Micah Lexier, Clare Rojas, and more. Gift ideas include, but are not limited to, knives, pens, jam jars, holy wafers, tape dispensers, chocolate with pistachios, and industrial pancake makers. If all that wasn’t enough, subscribers to the print version of The Believer will also receive a limited-edition 2025 calendar featuring original work by acclaimed artist Nina Chanel Abney.

And then:
Keep a watchful eye on your mailbox as you wait for three more issues of McSweeney’s Quarterly , three more issues of The Believer, and two more issues of Illustoria. The future is full of surprises, but one guarantee is more literary wonderment that McSweeney’s readers have come to expect over nearly a quarter century.

IMPORTANT LOGISTICAL INFORMATION: This is a one time combo price, all subscriptions to McSweeney’s Quarterly automatically renew after four issues, at 15% off the price of a regular sub (currently $80.75), while Believer subscriptions renew after four issues at a price of $51, and Illustoria after three issues at a price of $40. In the event of any future rate changes, we will notify you via email. If you’d like to cancel any of the three 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 lines “End Quarterly Renew,” “End Believer Renew,” “End Illustoria Renew,” or “End Family Renew” depending on your desires. Refunds will be accepted only up until the first issue of your renewal is shipped. All subscriptions placed by December 1, 2024, will begin with McSweeney’s Issue 75, Illustoria #25: Comics, and The Believer Issue 147. Any subscription purchased with the “gift” option marked at checkout will not be enrolled in autorenew.

International shipping costs for the full eleven-publication combo subscription: $75

For Issues 1-8 of Illustoria, and to keep up on the latest news and blog updates, visit Illustoria.com.

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