Dear readers,
How do you feel when you crack the spine on a new issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly? When you scroll through our humor site to relieve the existential dread brought on by the current events in 2019?
Fifty-eight issues in, we still believe our readers should encounter unexpectedly beautiful and thought-provoking books and magazines in their mailboxes and on the shelves of their local independent bookstore. And that the writers and artists we publish in our books, on our humor website and elsewhere deserve the widest possible audience and to see their work presented with utmost care, elegant materials, and unforgettable design. We believe the world is a better place with the work of these writers and artists in it.
In this current climate, where print books and magazines are beginning to feel like rare birds, where traditional publishing is ever more profit-driven, and the cost of paper and printing continue to rise, all of us at McSweeney’s are steadfast in our refusal to sacrifice the quality of our work. We’re able to hold down this fort, to continue breaking and remaking what literature can look like and what forms it can be found in, thanks to our donors and readers, who have invested in this experiment with blessed faith for over 21 years.
Writer Lisa Taddeo describes her happy disbelief at first encountering McSweeney’s. She says of our work, “There is, violently, nothing like it.” We hope that when you open something new from us, you feel some measure of what we feel when we’re putting these things together—a clearing of cobwebs to see the world in new ways, an immoderate level of hope, a surge of determination to make something new yourself.
Supporting McSweeney’s means you’re joining our dogged efforts to champion ambitious and inspired new writing, and challenge conventional expectations about where it’s found, how it looks, and who participates.
We simply could not do this work without you, and frankly, we wouldn’t want to. Please click here to make a contribution. You’ll fortify us and be a champion for all that we are planning for 2020 and beyond.
Warmly,
Amanda Uhle
Executive Director
P.S. Our literary journal was honored early in 2019 with the National Magazine Award for Fiction, whose judges cited our “assured spirit and commitment to surprise.” Please let us surprise you. Subscribe today.