<i>McSweeney’s</i> began in 1998 as a literary journal that published only works rejected from other magazines. Today, it has grown to be one of the country’s best and largest-circulation literary journals, attracting works from some of the finest writers in the country, including David Foster Wallace, Ann Cummins, Rick Moody, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Lethem, William T. Vollmann, and many new talents. <I>McSweeney's</I> publishes on a roughly quarterly schedule, and each issue is markedly different from its predecessors in terms of design and editorial focus. It has grown to be one of the country's best and largest-circulation literary journals. The journal is committed to finding new voices, publishing work of gifted but underappreciated writers, and pushing the literary form forward at all times. We have no idea what Issue 20 will be.

Every fourth page is a full-color figurative painting, each one by an excellent artist.  The other pages have fiction on them, with only one color but lots of words including punched, pants, and Puerto — that's actually just the first page. After that, there are stories exploring animal-plant romances, psycho librarians, and passive-agressive ventriloquism. No fewer than two dictators appear as protagonists. And after all that, loosely glued to the inside back cover, there¹s a fifty-page booklet containing a harrowing excerpt from Chris Adrian¹s The Children¹s Hospital..

This is a handsome, handsome issue, brimming with fulfilling things.