by David Brooks
BARBARA HURD
Dissonance, Sun, May.
SIRI HUSTVEDT
The Real Story, Salmagundi, Spring/Summer.
MICHAEL IDOV
The Movie Set That Ate Itself, GQ, November.
PICO IYER
The Terminal Check, Granta, no. 116.
LAWRENCE JACKSON
Christmas in Baltimore, 2009, n+1, no. 12.
HOLLY JACOBSON
On Other Shores, Memoir (and), no. 8.
PAT JORDAN
The Haircut, Southern Review, Spring.
DONALD KAGEN
On Patriotism, Yale Review, October.
KITTY KELLEY
Unauthorized, but Not Untrue, American Scholar, Winter.
RALPH KEYES
Euphemania: Show Me the Liquidity, Antioch Review, Winter.
JUDITH KITCHEN
Night Piece, Georgia Review, Fall.
PAUL A. KRAMER
The Importance of Being Turbaned, Antioch Review, Spring.
CAROLYN KREMERS
John Haines and the Dream Place, Permafrost.
KIM DANA KUPPERMAN
Attraction Next Exit, River Teeth, Fall.
MATT LABASH
Eyewitness to History!, Weekly Standard, October 17.
ROBERT LACY
Four of a Kind, Sewanee Review, Spring.
LINDA LANCIONE
The Currency of Love, New Letters, vol. 77, no. 2.
BERYL LANG
Replenishing the World, Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter.
LEWIS LAPHAM
Democracy 101, Harper’s Magazine, April.
SYDNEY LEA
Now, Look, River Teeth, Fall.
AMY LEACH
The Safari, Massachusetts Review, vol. 52, no. 1.
JOHN PATRICK LEARY
Detroitism, Guernica, January.
BARBARA F. LEFCOWITZ
Memory and Photography, Southwest Review, vol. 96, no. 2.
DAVID LEHMAN
Why I Love You, American Scholar, Summer.
NATON LESLIE
Odd Jobs, Florida Review, vol. 36, no. 1–2.
LEILA LEVINSON
Cracking Open the Silence,War, Literature, and the Arts, no. 23.
AIMEE LEVITT
Little House in the Present, Riverfront Times (St. Louis), November 24–30.
E. J. LEVY
To Cèpe, with Love (or, The Alchemy of Longing), Salmagundi, Spring/Summer.
CHARLIE LEWIS
Apartment No. 9, Ten Spurs, no. 5.
MICHAEL LEWIS
The King of Human Error, Vanity Fair, December.
K. N. LIAO
Bodies in Motion, Fourth River, Autumn.
MARK LIEBENOW
Hiking over the Edge, Chautauqua, no. 8.
MEL LIVATINO
The Perfect Raincoat, Under the Sun, no. 20.
SUSAN LOHAFER
In the Bullring, Iowa Review, Spring.
PHILLIP LOPATE
Between Insanity and Fat Dullness: How I Became an Emersonian, Harper’s Magazine, January.
BRETT LOTT
Writing with So Great a Cloud of Witnesses, Image, no. 69.
TRACY LYNCH
Inappropriate, Brain, Child, Fall.
PAT MACENULTY
Fixing the Deck, Apalachee Review, no. 61.
STEVE MACONE
Standup Comity, Morning News, November 28.
JANE MAHER
Raw Material, Hudson Review, Winter.
THOMAS MALLON
Never Happened, The New Yorker, November 21.
TED MANN
Magnificent Visions, Vanity Fair, December.
HARVEY MANSFIELD
The Wisdom of “The Federalist,” New Criterion, February.
CLANCY MARTIN
The Drunk’s Club, Harper’s Magazine, January.
MICHAEL MARTONE
Against the Beloved, Upstreet, no. 7.
DAVID MASELLO
The Empress’s New Clothes, Memoir (and), no. 8.
WYATT MASON
The Danger Artist, GQ, December.
DESIRAE MATHERLY
Flashbacks and Proliferations, Hotel Amerika, Fall.
NANCY MCCABE
Threads, Prairie Schooner, Fall.
TYLER MCCABE
Something Carries Through, Ruminate, Autumn.
MAC MCCLELLAND
Goodbye, Columbus, Mother Jones, November/December.
HEATHER A. MCDONALD
How to Fix Everything, Creative Nonfiction, Spring.
BILL MCKIBBEN
A Little Leeway, Orion, July/August.
JAMES MCMANUS
Full Tilt Boogie: The UIGEA and You, Grantland.com, December 8.
JOHN MCPHEE
Progression, The New Yorker, November 17.
REBECCA MEAD
Middlemarch and Me, The New Yorker, February 14/21.
KAT MEADS
Neighbor Trim, Also Awake, Crab Orchard Review, Summer/Fall.
GILBERT MEILAENDER
Transitional Humanity, New Atlantis, Spring.
DAPHNE MERKIN
Between Love and Madness, Elle, July.
KENT MEYERS
The Makings, Georgia Review, Fall.
MEGAN MICHELSON
In a House by the River, Outside, February.
DEBRA MONROE
The Sex Trade in Northwest Wisconsin, Morning News, July 13.
BARRY MOSER
A Bookwright’s Tale, Image, no. 71.
KERMIT MOYER
A Stranger to Himself, Washingtonian, August.
ALAN NASLUND
What I Saw in the Country, Minnetonka Review, Spring.
DEBORAH NELSON
The Cruelest Show on Earth, Mother Jones, November/December.
JESSICA HENDRY NELSON
The Whitest Winter Light, Alligator Juniper, 2011.
JOHN NELSON
Parting Words, Massachusetts Review, vol. 52, no. 1.
MARC NIESON
In the Basement, Green Mountains Review, vol. 24, no. 1.
NANCY J. NORDENSON
Metrics, Indiana Review, Winter.
MARY NORRIS
It Hurt to Hum, Epiphany, Spring/Summer.
JOSIP NOVAKOVICH
Shopping for a Better Country, Witness, vol. 24, no. 1.
JEREMIAH O’HAGEN
Essaying, Los Angeles Review, Fall.
JEN O’MALLEY
How to Make a Bride, Annalemma, no. 8.
GEORGE PACKER
The Broken Contract, Foreign Affairs, November/December.
ADRIANA PARAMO
The Limbless Boy of a Mayan Mother, Carolina Review, Winter.
ANN PATCHETT
The Mercies, Granta, no. 114.
RACHEL PECKHAM
Apple, Daydream, Memory, Under the Sun, no. 20.
ANDRE PERRY
Strange Roots for Talking, Water-Stone Review, no. 14.
HELEN PHILLIPS
Life Care Center, Iowa Review, Winter.
SAM PICKERING
Winter Dreams, River Teeth, Spring.
DARRYL PINCKNEY
Deep in the Bowl, Harper’s Magazine, September.
ELLEN PINSKY
Dress, Salmagundi, Spring/Summer.
LISBETH PRIFOGLE
Pretty, PMS, no. 8.
ERIC PUCHNER
Schemes of My Father, GQ, March.
LIA PURPURA
Jump, Iowa Review, Fall.
JONATHAN RABAN
The Getaway Car, New York Times Magazine, June 12.
DAVID RABE
They Steal Your Sweat, Massachusetts Review, vol. 52, no. 3–4.
THEO RADIC
La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin, Epiphany, Fall/Winter.
DAWN RAFFEL
The Florsheim Dog, Willow Springs, Spring.
IRAJ ISAAC RAHMIM
Dancing for the Bomb, Missouri Review, Fall.
CRAIG REINBOLD
The Many Ways to Die, Guernica, October.
KATHRYN RHETT
Wayward, Harvard Review, no. 41.
DAVID RIEFF
After 9/11, Harper’s Magazine, August.
MARILYNNE ROBINSON
On “Beauty,” Tin House, no. 50.
MOLLY JO ROSE
How We Pain, Fifth Wednesday, Fall.
FRANCES MCCALL ROSENBLUTH
The Two Faces of Feminism, Yale Review, October.
KENT RUSSELL
Ryan Went to Afghanistan, n+1, no. 11.
SCOTT SAALMAN
A History of the Kiss, Southern Indiana Review, Spring.
SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
Breaking the Spell of Money, Orion, July/August.
ALEXIS SCHAITKIN
The American Art of Authenticity, Southern Review, Spring.
ARI N. SCHULMAN
GPS and the End of the Road, New Atlantis, Spring.
MOLLY SCHULTZ
Litany of My Mother, Black Warrior Review, Spring/Summer.
DAVID SEDARIS
Easy, Tiger, The New Yorker, July 11/18.
WILL SELF
False Blood, Granta, no. 117.
AMARTYA SEN
The Boundaries of Justice, New Republic, December 29.
ANTHONY SHADID
The American Age, Iraq, Summer.
PEGGY SHINNER
Berenice’s Hair, Southern Review, Summer.
EMILY SINCLAIR
Inclusion/Exclusion: A Story of Sex, Death, and Real Estate, Normal School, Fall.
PAMELA SKJOLSVIK
Surrender, Ten Spurs, no. 5.
FLOYD SKLOOT
Revertigo, Boulevard, no. 78.
JANNA MALAMUD SMITH
The Unmurdered, Ecotone, no. 11.
GEORGE STEINER
Is Death Dying?, Salmagundi, Fall/Winter.
CHRISTINE STEWART-NUNEZ
An Archeology of Secrets, Briar Cliff Review, no. 23.
DEANNE STILLMAN
9/11 and the Damage Done, Truthdig, September 7.
LAURIE STONE
Sex at 58 (Marco’s Jew), Anderbo .com, October.
CHERYL STRAYED
When the Farmer Clutches the Rake; Writing the Real, Post Road, no. 22.
NED STUCKEY-FRENCH
Nightmares, New South, Summer.
MICHAEL A. STUSSER
Speak No Evil, Tweet No Evil, Seattle Weekly, June 22–28.
JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN
You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey! New York Times Magazine, June 12.
DANIEL SWIFT
Conjectural Damage, Harper’s Magazine, November.
KERRY TEMPLE
A Summer Night, Notre Dame Magazine, Summer.
JONNY THAKKAR
Hail Mary Time?, The Point, Spring.
PAUL THEROUX
The Trouble with Autobiography, Smithsonian, January.
CALVIN TRILLIN
Back on the Bus, The New Yorker, July 25.
PHILIP TURNER
William Styron: A Promise Kept, Barnes & Noble Review, August 10.
JOE VALLESE
Blood, Brothers, Southeast Review, vol. 29, no. 2.
RYAN VAN METER
Look at Me, Ninth Letter, Spring/Summer.
ROBERT VIVIAN
The Latecomer to Glorious Places, Upstreet, no. 7.
WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN
Homelessness in Sacramento, Harper’s Magazine, March.
JERALD WALKER
Inauguration, Normal School, Spring.
MICHAEL WALZER
On Humanitarianism, Foreign Affairs, March/April.
MARINA WARNER
Freud’s Couch: A Case History, Raritan, Fall.
DAVID WATTS
The Healing Art of Writing, Examined Life, Spring.
HOLLY WELKER
Keeping Abreast of Beauty, Bayou, no. 54.
SARAH WELLS
Those Summers, These Days, Ascent, December 11.
SEAN WILENTZ
The Mirage, New Republic, November 17.
CHRYSTAL WILLIAMS
Mirror, Mirror: A Guide to Pathos, Tin House, no. 50.
MELORA WOLFE
Hearing Voices, Gettysburg Review, Autumn.
LAURA ESTHER WOLFSON
Haunting Synagogues, Bellingham Review, Spring.
JAMES WOOD
Shelf Life, The New Yorker, November 7.
SAINT JAMES HARRIS WOOD
The Wild Courtroom Speech, Inkwell, Fall.
ROB ZARETSKY
Plunging to Earth, American Scholar, Summer.
Notable Special Issues of 2011
Antioch Review, ed. Robert S. Fogarty, Illuminated Manuscripts and Other Enlightenments, Spring.
Asian American Literary Review, guest eds. Rajini Srikanth and Parag Khandhar, Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of September 11, Fall 2011.
Bellevue Literary Review, ed. Danielle Ofri, Tenth Anniversary Issue, Fall.
California, ed. Wendy Miller, Articles of Faith, Spring.
Chautauqua, eds. Jill Gerard and Philip Gerard, Nature and the Natural World, no. 8.
Cimarron Review, eds. E. P. Walkiewicz and Toni Graham, Work, Spring/Summer.
Columbia Journalism Review, ed. Mike Hoyt, Fiftieth Anniversary Issue, November/December.
Conjunctions, ed. Bradford Morrow, Kin, no. 57.
Daedalus, guest ed. Gerald Early, Race in the Age of Obama, Winter; guest ed. Lawrence D. Bobo, Race, Inequality, and Culture, Spring.
Fugue, ed. Mary Morgan, The Play Issue, Winter/Spring.
Hotel Amerika, ed. David Lazar, Aphorisms, Spring.
Manoa, ed. Frank Stewart, Almost Heaven: On the Human and Divine, Winter.
Massachusetts Review, eds. Jim Hicks and Kevin Bowen, Casualty, vol. 52, no. 3–4.
Michigan Quarterly Review, ed. Keith Taylor, The Great Lakes: Love Song and Lament, Spring.
New Atlantis, ed. Adam Keiper, Place and Placelessness in America, Spring.
New Letters, ed. Robert Stewart, Connected, vol. 77, no. 3–4.
New Literary History, eds. Rita Felski and Herbert F. Tucker, Context?, Autumn.
North Dakota Quarterly, ed. Robert W. Lewis, Hemingway in His and Our Time, Winter/Spring.
Oxford American, ed. Marc Smirnoff, The Education Issue, no. 74.
Slake, eds. Laurie Ochoa and Joseph Donnelly, Crossing Over, no. 2.
Think, ed. Christine Yurick, The Symposium on Form, Spring.
Tin House, ed. Rob Spillman, Beauty, no. 50.
Witness, ed. Amber Withycombe, Blurring Borders, vol. 24, no. 1.
About the Editors
DAVID BROOKS is a New York Times op-ed columnist and the author most recently of The Social Animal. He is also a commentator on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and a frequent analyst on NPR's All Things Considered.
ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.