The Best American Essays 2016

by Jonathan Franzen

  Bonnie Costello

  The English-Speaking Union, The Southern Review, Autumn

  Lisa Fay Coutley

  Why to Run Racks, Prairie Schooner, Winter

  Abigail Covington

  When the Fire Broke Out, Oxford American, no. 91

  Paul Crenshaw

  Cold, The Southwest Review, vol. 100, no. 2

  Matt Crossman

  The Last #Tweet, Charlotte, November

  John Crowley

  On Not Being Well Read, Harper’s Magazine, March

  Hal Crowther

  Terminal Depression: Is It Just Me? Narrative, Fall

  Christine Cusick

  A Call to Tea, New Hibernia Review, Winter

  Jim Dameron

  A Eulogy for the Living, Agni, no. 81

  J. D. Daniels

  Letter from the Primal Horde, Paris Review, Spring

  Renee E. D’Aoust

  The Line of No Trees, Ragazine, November

  Dawn S. Davies

  King of the World, The Missouri Review, Winter

  Carol Ann Davis

  Eva Hesse Material: A Memoir, American Poetry Review, November/December

  Rod Davis

  Her Dark Places, D Magazine, October

  Patrick Deeley

  The Hurley-Maker’s Son, New Hibernia Review, Spring

  Brent DeLanoy

  Airhead, The Missouri Review, Spring

  Tammy DeLatorre

  Diving Lessons, Slippery Elm, 2015

  Mensah Demary

  This Is How You Become an Editor, Catapult, September 24

  Timothy Denevi

  Pigs, Sea, The Normal School, vol. 8, no. 1

  Wiliam Deresiewicz

  The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur, The Atlantic, January/February

  Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson

  Notes from a Suicide, Post Road, no. 29

  Laura Michele Diener

  The Ash Tree, Lake Effect, no. 19

  Laura S. Distelheim

  Nocturne in the Key of We, Hunger Mountain, no. 19

  Sharon Dolin

  The Man Who Knew Too Much and the Girl Who Knew Too Little, Five Points, vol. 17, no. 1

  Kristin Dombek

  Going South, Epiphany, Summer

  Matt Donovan

  Garden of the Fugitives, The Kenyon Review, March/April

  Noam Dorr

  Love Drones, Gulf Coast, Winter/Spring

  David Downie

  Glasnost and Wedding Bells, Chicago Quarterly Review, no. 21

  Brian Doyle

  Sensualiterature, Creative Nonfiction, Winter

  Lindey Drager

  To Possess Is to Extinguish: A Gothic Essay, Copper Nickel, no. 21

  Laurence Dumortier

  The Best Time I Lost My Virginity in the Catacombs of Paris, The Hairpin, June 15

  Katherine Dykstra

  Siena, The Common, October 20

  Gwendolyn Edward

  The Business of Bodies, Cleaver Magazine, no. 12

  Chase Edwards

  Roundabout the Rat Cage, Yemassee, Spring

  Dave Eggers

  Nowhere Near Reykjavik, Fifth Wednesday, Fall

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Mind Your Own Business, The Baffler, no. 27

  Gretel Ehrlich

  Rotten Ice, Harper’s Magazine, April

  Sue Eisenfeld

  Wild Feast, Little Patuxent Review, Winter

  Gena Ellett

  The Back Roads, Event, vol. 44, no. 3

  David Emblidge

  Asleep in the Cottage, The Southwest Review, vol. 100, no. 4

  Anjali Enjeti

  Borderline, Prime Number, October

  Joseph Epstein

  Whatever Happened to High Culture, The Weekly Standard, November 9

  Pamela Erens

  Crave, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring

  Melissa Faliveno

  Driftless, Midwestern Gothic, Fall

  Laura Farrell

  Things Blur, OC87 Recovery Diaries, February 18

  Steve Featherstone

  Destiny, USA, n+1, Winter

  Micah Fields

  How to Write a War Poem, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Fall/Winter

  Gary Fincke

  Proximity, December, Spring/Summer

  Caitlin Flanagan

  That’s Not Funny, The Atlantic, September

  Daisy Florin

  Crash, Under the Gum Tree, July

  Paul Ford

  Code: An Essay, Bloomberg Businessweek, June 15

  Soyini Ayanna Forde

  Teet’, Cleaver Magazine, no. 12

  Robert Long Foreman

  Why I Write Nonfiction, Copper Nickel, no. 20

  Patricia Foster

  The Lost Years, Colorado Review, Spring

  Matthew Gavin Frank

  Grasshopper Diptych, Midwestern Gothic, Fall

  Joey Franklin

  The Full Montaigne, Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter

  Jonathan Franzen

  Carbon Capture, The New Yorker, April 6

  Ian Frazier

  The Syrian Woman, Portland, Winter

  Steve Friedman

  My Sister, the Runner? Runner’s World, January/February

  Rebekah Frumkin

  Atypical, Catapult, December 11

  Andrew Furman

  Starting from Seed, The Southern Review, Spring

  Brendan Galvin

  A Few Thousand Walks by the Little Pamet River: One Poet’s Geography, Sewanee Review, Summer

  J. Malcolm Garcia

  The Feral Children of Kabul, Tampa Review, no. 50

  Kenneth Garcia

  Cattle, Casinos, and Cathouses, The Southwest Review, vol. 100, no. 2

  Emily Geminder

  Coming To: A Lexicology of Fainting, Prairie Schooner, Summer

  Elizabeth Gentry

  The Possum, the Wren, and My Animal-Soul, Third Coast, Fall

  Philip Gerard

  Sherman’s Final March, Our State, February

  David Gessner

  The Prankster and the Professor, Tin House, no. 64

  Ethan Gilsdorf

  The Day My Mother Became a Stranger, Boston Magazine, May

  D. Gilson

  Michael Jackson & Michel Foucault Walk into a Bar, The Threepenny Review, Fall

  Amanda Giracca

  The Art of Butchery, Aeon, April 24

  William Giraldi

  Object Lesson, The New Republic, May

  Amy Glynn

  Apple, Literal Latte, Spring

  Flora Gonzalez

  The Sewing Room, Solstice, Summer

  Adam Gopnik

  The Driver’s Seat, The New Yorker, February 2

  Alison Gopnik

  David Hume and the Buddha, The Atlantic, October

  Emily Fox Gordon

  Confessing and Confiding, The American Scholar, Spring

  Vivian Gornick

  Why I Live Where I Live, The New Republic, November

  Michael Gracey

  My Own Good Daemon, Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter

  T. Austin Graham

  Songs of the Century, New Literary History, vol. 4, no. 4

  Sue Granzella

  Andiamo! Ascent, May 20

  Allison Green

  Twenty Hours and Ten Minutes of Therapy, The Gettysburg Review, Spring

  Stephen Greenblatt

  Shakespeare in Tehran, The New York Review of Books, April 2

  Mark Grief

  Seeing Through Police, n+1, Spring

  Genese Grill

  Almandal Grimoire: The Book as Magical Object, The Georgia Review, Winter

  Ona Gritz

  It’s Time, The Rumpus, August 12

  Melissa Grunow

  We’re All Mad Here: A Field Guide to Feigning Sanity, Limestone, Fall

  Penny Guisinger

  The Sound of Galton’s Whistle, The Rumpus, June 14

 
; Margaret Morganroth Gullette

  Morgie Waits for Her Future Self to Appear, South Street, Fall

  Debra Gwartney

  We All Must Live by the Rules, Tin House, no. 63

  Shahnaz Habib

  Hospitality, Brevity, September 3

  Meaghan Hackinen

  Where the Tide Rushes Between, One Throne Magazine, Fall

  Rachel Hadas

  The Honors Student, the Plagiarist, and the Fan, Hotel Amerika, Winter

  Jessica Erica Hahn

  Last Man Standing, Prick of the Spindle, no. 8

  James Allen Hall

  Be Destroyed, Alaska Quarterly Review, Spring/Summer

  Jane Eaton Hamilton

  Never Say I Didn’t Bring You Flowers, Full Grown People, January 8

  Jeffrey Hammond

  Eight-Per-Five, Under the Sun, Summer

  Liz Windhorst Harmer

  Correctives, Prism, Winter

  Bonnie Harris

  Irene, Profane, Winter

  Webb Harris Jr.

  Long Time Comin’: The Education of Brother Webb, Southern Humanities Review, vol. 48, no. 4

  Lee Haupt

  The Ring, Image, no. 87

  Karen Hayes

  CV x K, Passages North, no. 36

  Ursula Hegi

  I’m Searching for a Home for Unwed Girls, New England Review, vol. 36, no. 3

  Danny Heitman

  Our Contemporary, Montaigne, Humanities, March/April

  Robin Hemley

  Border Crossing, Orion, July/August

  Aleksandar Hemon

  In Search of Lost Space, Freeman’s, no. 1

  Julie Henson

  Sisters Peeling, New Ohio Review, Fall

  Michelle Herman

  Gone, Creative Nonfiction, Winter

  Daisy Hernandez

  Los Ojos, Dogwood, Spring

  Doug Hesse

  Teaching a Stone to Read, Fourth Genre, Fall

  Emily Hipchen

  Hush, Under the Sun, Summer

  Edward Hoagland

  The Mysteries of Attraction, The American Scholar, Autumn

  Ann Hodgman

  Against Locavores, Tin House, no. 63

  Ming Holden

  Jacqueline and the Negative Imagination, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Fall/Winter

  BJ Hollars

  Hirofukushima, Passages North, no. 36

  Ann Hood

  Abingdon Square, The Normal School, vol. 8, no. 2

  Bell Hooks

  Writing Without Labels, Appalachian Heritage, Fall

  Elizabeth Hoover

  Smudge, Story Quarterly, no. 48

  Patricia Horvath

  Wrath, The Los Angeles Review, Fall

  Kerry Howley

  The Cage of You, Granta, no. 132

  William Huhn

  You Forgot These, Thema, Autumn

  Christine Hume

  Ventifacts, Conjunctions, no. 64

  Courtney Humphries

  Teeth, Bluestem, Spring

  Erica Hunt

  Chasing a Ghost, Portrait of My Father, The Literary Review, Fall

  Barbara Hurd

  The Ear Is a Lonely Hunter, Ecotone, Fall

  Pico Iyer

  The Foreign Spell, Lapham’s Quarterly, Winter

  Stanley Jacobs

  The Oriel Window, Tampa Review, no. 50

  Alison Condie Jaenicke

  I Slept Well if You Slept Well, Isthmus, Fall/Winter

  Evan James

  Grotesk, Oxford American, no. 90

  Leslie Jamison

  Giving Up the Ghost, Harper’s Magazine, March

  Fenton Johnson

  Going It Alone, Harper’s Magazine, April

  Lacy M. Johnson

  On Mercy, Guernica, October 1

  Alex R. Jones

  Small Time, The Sun, April

  Louis B. Jones

  Varney’s, The Threepenny Review, Fall

  Latoya Jordan

  After Striking a Fixed Object, Manifest-Station, July 22

  Fabienne Josaphat

  Summer Is an Empty House, Grist, no. 8

  Howard Kaplan

  The St. Jude’s Old-Timers Softball Draft Night, Splice Today, May 6

  Moss Kaplan

  Viewing the Dead, The Literary Review, Fall

  Garrett Keizer

  Hokusai’s Octopus: A Romp at the Edge of the Deep, The Kenyon Review, May/June

  Anne Marie Kennedy

  Nowhere on the Chart, New Hibernia Review, Autumn

  Randall Kennedy

  Lifting as We Climb, Harper’s Magazine, October

  Thomas E. Kennedy

  Prudence and Method, New Letters, vol. 82, no. 1

  Harrison Scott Key

  Man Is But an Ass, Image, no. 84

  Ralph Keyes

  Smoking with Mom, The Antioch Review, Winter

  Porochista Khakpour

  Federer as Irreligious Experience, Prairie Schooner, Winter

  Lydia Kiesling

  Beautiful Babies, The Millions, July 28

  Jean Kim

  The Hijacked Flight My Mother Didn’t Take, Medium, February

  Kenneth King

  At the Crossroads, North Dakota Quarterly, vol. 82, no. 4

  Martha King

  Outside Inside, A Public Space, no. 23

  Alison Kinney

  The Uses of Orphans, The New Inquiry, October 2

  Dasha Kiper

  Hope Is the Enemy, The American Scholar, Autumn

  Cassandra Kircher

  No More to the Lake, North Dakota Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2

  Judith Kitchen

  Breath, River Teeth, Spring

  Jacqueline Kolosov

  Pilgrimage to St. Ives, The Sewanee Review, Summer

  Mary Kudenov

  A History of Smoking, The Southampton Review, Spring

  Don Lago

  Message from Space, Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter

  Hafeez Lakhani

  The Argument, Crazyhorse, Fall

  Annie Lampan

  The Joints That Hold Us Together, The Massachusetts Review, Fall

  Heather Kirn Lanier

  The R-Word, The Sun, May

  Lance Larsen

  Too Many Mysteries to Shake a Stick At, The Southwest Review, vol. 100, no. 1

  Peter LaSalle

  Invisible Travel: A Cycle Concerning the Creative Imagination, in Nine Parts, The Literary Review, Fall

  Victor Lavalle

  Run Your Shit, Tin House, no. 65

  David Lazar

  To the Reader, Sincerely, The Normal School, vol. 8, no. 2

  Anna Leahy

  The Give and Take of Grief, The Weeklings, January 30

  Harvey Leeds

  They’re Not Pretending Anymore, Green Mountains Review, vol. 28, no. 2

  Lawrence Lenhart

  Dogsucker: The Written Oral, Alaska Quarterly Review, Spring/Summer

  Sarah K. Lenz

  Killing Chickens, New Letters, vol. 81, nos. 3 and 4

  Brigitte Leschhorn

  Ghosts March in Ferguson, MO, Crab Orchard Review, Summer/Fall

  Shara Lessley

  Point Blank, The Gettysburg Review, Winter

  Gabriel Levin

  Our Sorrow and Our Love Move into a Foreign Language, Salamander, no. 41

  Cynthia Lewis

  Big Love, The Hudson Review, Summer

  Michael Lewis

  The White Stuff, Vanity Fair, November

  Alison Lie

  Her Boyhood, Catamaran, Fall

  Kerstin Lieff

  A Boy Named Klaus, The Southeast Review, vol. 33, no. 1

  Michael Lindenberger

  The Vanishing Terrain of Gay America, The New Republic, July/August

  Brandon Lingle

  Tourniquet, The Southeast Review, vol. 33, no. 2

  Gordon Lish

  Postcards, The Antioch Review, Fall

  Mel Livatinor />
  How Do We Love? Notre Dame Magazine, Winter

  Roberto Loiederman

  Roadblock, Fifth Wednesday, Spring

  Priscilla Long

  Old Things, Used Things, The Antioch Review, Fall

  Phillip Lopate

  Experience Necessary, Salmagundi, Winter/Spring

  Barry Lopez

  The Invitation, Granta, no. 133

  Alice Lowe

  My Quarrel with Grieving, Permafrost, Winter

  Sara Beth Lowe

  Ridge Hounds, The Louisville Review, Fall

  Jennifer Lunden

  Evidence, River Teeth, Spring

  Rachel Luria

  The Rush Gives Warmth Enough, Sport Literate, vol. 9, no. 1

  Stephen J. Lyons

  The River Will Have the Last Word, Narratively, August 27

  Monica Macansantos

  Becoming a Writer: The Silences We Write Against, TAYO Literary Magazine, May 31

  Jody Mace

  The Population of Me, Full Grown People, June 23

  Carmen Maria Machado

  A Girl’s Guide to Sexual Purity, The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 5

  Kyo Maclear

  Faltering, Brick, no. 95

  Steve Macone

  On Taphonomy: Digging for Dinosaurs in My Twenties, The Atlantic, October 16

  J. B. MacKinnon

  Facing Fear, Orion, May/June

  Patrick Madden

  Spit, Fourth Genre, Spring

  Terese Marie Mailhot

  I Know I’ll Go, Burrow Press Review, August 18

  Patrick Mainelli

  Hope, Change, Etc., Isthmus, Spring/Summer

  Antonia Malchik

  Bitterroot, 1966: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction, Summer

  Pamela Mandell

  Berry B., The Los Angeles Review, Spring

  Corinne Manning

  The Language of Kudzu, Lake Effect, no. 19

  Terrance Manning Jr.

  Leave Them Hurtin’ When You Leave, Crazyhorse, Fall

  Stephen Marche

  The Ghost of Hemingway, Esquire, October

  Jeannie Marshall

  A Kind of Hunger, Brick, no. 95

  Chelsea Martin

  Voluntary Responses to Involuntary Sensations, Catapult, September 10

  Clancy Martin

  We Buy Broken Gold, Lapham’s Quarterly, Spring

  Lucy Martin

  Abe & I, Witness, Spring

  Marilyn Martin

  State of Grace, Third Coast, Fall

  Greg Marshall

  Suck Ray Blue, Tampa Review, no. 50

  Michael Martone

  Live Blogging My Father’s Death, Witness, Spring

  Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

  The Taste of Sardines, Hotel Amerika, Winter

  David Masello

  Come Through for Me, Gay & Lesbian Review, July/August

  Daniel Mason

  Rogue Wounds, Lapham’s Quarterly, Spring

  Ryan Masters

  Unless a Kernel of Wheat Falls, Image, no. 87

  Melissa Matthewson