McSweeney's Issue 80(2025)

Aimee BenderMichael ChabonCarol Emshwiller

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 grid-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; 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 an excerpt from Kevin Moffett’s National Book Award–longlisted debut novel; 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.