McSweeney's Issue 80 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern)

For the eightieth totally radical issue of our National Magazine Award–winning quarterly, we’ve intercepted a distant satellite transmission blasting in from the future-past: A 1980s rainbow-hued, coral-reef-clad, dolphin-inhabited, drowned-world three-ring oversized-school-binder-inspired volume. An unhinged and unhingable maximalist wonder, McSweeney’s 80 will absolutely gag you with a spoon in awe and bodaciousness.Clipped into the metal three-rings of this issue are no less than seven (!) individual book art objects, including: a college-ruled sketchbook by Eisner winner Adrian Tomine; a heart-stoppingly beautiful accordion-shaped catalog of twelve different flowers by Pulitzer Prize finalist Yiyun Li; a story in the form of an end-of-the-world scantron questionnaire by Pip Adam; a crossword about being in (and out) of love by Chris Ames; literary criticism in the form of an acrylic stencil by Tamara Shopsin; a story by Guggenheim Fellow Lucy Corin in which the protagonist may, or may not, be able to eat their students; and a story by Brittany Newell in which the protagonist may, or may not, be in love with their dubiously credentialed couples therapist. Find all this plus a novel excerpt by Kevin Moffett; the 2025 Stephen Dixon Award–winning story “My Son’s Name Is Not Cassava” by Akhim Alexis; a letter by PEN Translation Prize winner Katrina Dodson circling the unexpected twinned linguistic heritage of Portuguese and Vietnamese; more letters by Anelise Chen, Steven Dunn, and Molly McGhee; and a truly gnarly amount more!

Unfasten the cover, pop open this book’s three tubular rings, and unfurl the unruly and radiantly conceived worlds of McSweeney’s Quarterly Issue 80.