Coming to you at the intersection of book and tapestry, the seventy-ninth issue of our National Magazine Award–winning quarterly is embroidered from head to toe—using precisely 133,095 stitches of thread—with the art of Marta Monteiro. Inside this tactile, textile, tangerine-backdropped, cloth-bound art object are nine new stories, three fresh novel excerpts, six timely letters, an essay as sharp as a blade, a stunningly surreal slice of a graphic novel by Patrick Keck, and a shockingly beautiful, hot-pink suite of Mary Magdalenes painted by Leanne Shapton.As your fingers caress the raised topography of this issue’s beyond-belief weave, marvel at a story by Joseph Earl Thomas in which time stops mid-dunk; a novel excerpt by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff in which invented languages make a play; a story by Ahmed Naji that circles Cairo rap clashes; a captivating, climate-terror portrait of a story by T.C. Boyle; three totally crisp, sentence-gem-adorned stories by Diane Williams; dazzling letters by Jac Jemc, Meng Jin, Rebekah Bergman, and so much more!Blow a kiss goodbye to summer, and brush your hands over the neon-threaded landscape of Issue 79 to feel a magazine that, both inside and out, is truly like no other. Featuring new stories by:Joseph Earl ThomasValeria Parrella, translated from Italian by Sonya Gray RediT.C. BoyleJames KaelanCaroline BeimfordDiane WilliamsAhmed Naji, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth JaquetteA new essay by:Camonghne FelixNovel excerpts by:Josephine RoweJoanna RuoccoHelen DeWitt and Ilya GridneffA graphic novel excerpt by:Patrick KeckA portfolio of paintings by:Leanne ShaptonLetters by:Meng JinAbraham AdamsJac JemcRebekah BergmanHannah PittardEnrico Rotelli
