MCSWEENEY’S

McSweeney’s 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 work from some of the finest writers in the country, including Denis Johnson, Jonathan Franzen, 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. At the same time, the journal continues to be a major home for new and unpublished writers; we’re committed to publishing exciting fiction regardless of pedigree.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 of the quarterly is completely redesigned. There have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head. McSweeney’s has won multiple literary awards, including two 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.

McSweeney’s has published dozens of books over the years, including Nick Hornby’s Songbook, Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun and What is the What, plus novels and essay collections by Stephen Dixon, Michael Chabon, David Byrne, and many others. Our books have been honored by the National Book Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, the Independent Press Awards, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Independent Publisher Awards. Our list is getting longer and longer, but we’re still dedicated to publishing books we love, and that we hope you’ll love, too.

Our fiction imprints feature original work by writers working in a wide range of styles and subject matters, all of them aiming to push the form forward. In recent years, we’ve proudly published John Brandon’s Arkansas and Citrus County, Adam Levin’s masterful and ambitious The Instructions, and the darkly hilarious novels of the late Millard Kaufman.

McSweeney’s has an abiding love for the visual arts. We’ve published a number of comics-focused books, a handful of art commentary, and portfolios of work by the likes of Marcel Dzama, Dave Eggers, Art Spiegelman, and David Byrne.

McSweeney’s McMullens, our new children’s imprint, will publish great new books—as well as new editions of out-of-print classics—for individuals and families of all kinds. Every book will be produced with special care, and will strive to remind readers of just how delightful it can be to sit down and read a book. Three of the first four titles are picture books. All three picture books feature sturdy dust jackets that unfold into giant two-sided posters, suitable for extended gazing.

McSweeney’s publishes a wide-ranging list of nonfiction, from essay collections to war journalism to memoir. Our titles include Dave Eggers’s award-winning Zeitoun, Darin Strauss’s Half a Life, and William T. Vollmann’s epic seven-volume treatise on violence, Rising Up and Rising Down.

Believer Books collects works from some of our monthly magazine’s most popular contributors, including Nick Hornby, Jim Shepard, and Javier Marías.

Voice of Witness is our nonprofit series of oral histories documenting contemporary social injustice. Founded by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen, the series has produced groundbreaking books documenting human-rights crises in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, and the United States. For more information, visit voiceofwitness.org.

Utilitarian baby books, letters to the first family, a guide to papal fashion, and a latke who won’t stop screaming.

We haven’t published many poetry books yet, but we intend to. In the meantime, you can find new poems each month in the Believer.

The Collins Library is our series of handsome reprints of forgotten classics, edited by Paul Collins, a good and brilliant man.