McSweeney's #84

McSweeney's three-time National Magazine Award-winning quarterly brings you our 84th issue: coming to you inside a deluxe and mysterious canvas artisan's tool scroll. This is an issue that must be seen to be believed.

McSweeney's 84 comes packed, improbably, inside an artisan's tool roll, the kind of portable canvas organizer that craftspeople of all stripes have stored their crucial implements in (chisels, paintbrushes, carving knives) for centuries.

Unroll this durable carryall and find actual pockets of new work in a variety of physical forms: new fiction by André Alexis, Anne de Marcken, Catherine Foulkrod, Dylan Fisher; a stunning story by 2026 Stephen Dixon Award-winner Zhenglong Yang (chosen by Catherine Lacey); letters by ZZ Packer, John Freeman, and Anita Felicelli; paintings by Cecily Brown; an 8.25″ × 11.4″ comic by Laura Callaghan; nonslip work gloves by Tucker Nichols, with handwritten use tips from the artist printed across the gloves using Grip Dot technology (for a superior grip); useful information from Nathaniel Russell; a choose-your-own-adventure-esque graphic story by Anders Nilsen, printed (naturally) on a 150-centimeter-long tape measure; and, inconceivably, more. This is an issue that simply must be seen (and gripped, and opened, and sniffed, and explored) to be believed.

Featuring stories by:

• André Alexis
• Anne de Marcken
• Daniel J. O’Malley
• Dylan Fisher
• Ryan Wargaski
• Zhenglong Yang (Stephen Dixon Award Winner)

A novel excerpt by:

• Catherine Foulkrod

A pair of work gloves by:

• Tucker Nichols

A tape measure by:

• Anders Nilsen

A comic by:

• Laura Callaghan

Art by:

• Cecily Brown
• Nathaniel Russell
• Matt Panuska
• Pete Gamlen
• Jesse Balmer
• Anna Degnbol

Letters by:

• ZZ Packer
• John Freeman
• Anita Felicelli
• Bill Heck
• Beulah Nimene
• Denise Napoli Long 

About McSweeney's Quarterly:
Ever changing, 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), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.

Editors: Dave Eggers / Rita Bullwinkel 
Publisher: McSweeney's Books
Pages: 120pp
Size: 6 x 9
Notes: formatted as a tool roll
Release Date: November 19, 2026
ISBN: 978-1963270754