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The Best American Essays 2018

Page 37

by Hilton Als


  Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2017

  Selected by Robert Atwan

  André Aciman

  Underground, Harvard Review, #50

  Naa Baako Ako-Adjei

  Why It’s Time Schools Stopped Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, Transition, #122

  Marcia Aldrich

  Wallpaper: A Parable, Hypertext Review, Spring

  Jason Arment

  White Whale, The Iowa Review, Spring

  Whit Arnold

  Snap, Midwestern Gothic, Summer

  Chris Arthur

  Sleepers, New Hibernia Review, Summer

  Kendra Atleework

  Dawn of Tomorrow, Territory, March

  Karen Babine

  Orange, Zone 3, Spring

  Jennifer Baker

  What We Aren’t (or the Ongoing Divide), Kweli, June 23

  Bruce Ballenger

  Return to the Typewriter, Fourth Genre, Spring

  John Barth

  Out of the Cradle, Granta, #140

  Molly Bashaw

  Lebenslauf, Crazyhorse, Fall

  M. Bayless

  So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Event, 45/3

  Dan Beachy-Quick

  Even, Zone 3, Spring

  Gorman Beauchamp

  Open Casket and Cultural Appropriation, The Antioch Review, Fall

  Elizabeth Benedict

  Do You Come Here Often? Kitchen Work, Winter

  Stephen Benz

  Unapproachable Evanston, Cream City Review, Fall

  Emily Bernard

  Interstates, The American Scholar, Spring

  David Bersell

  My Father Is a Collection, Hobart, June 1

  Sven Birkerts

  “What Next?” AGNI, #85

  Kathleen Blackburn

  Daughter Tongue, Colorado Review, Summer

  Andrew Blevins

  The Egg Man, Crazyhorse, Fall

  Emma Bogdonoff

  Schrodinger’s Ovaries, The Threepenny Review, Winter

  Marc Bookman

  Three Murders in Philadelphia, Slate, May 12

  Jenny Boully

  Cindy Dodge, Aerialist, Fall, The Iowa Review, Fall

  Michael Brandow

  Confessions of a Hello Kitty Killer: The Pernicious Effects of Cuteness, Quillette, June 24

  Jamie Brisick

  The Dazzling Blackness, The Surfer’s Journal, August/September 26/4

  Rosellen Brown

  Offstage: Scenes You Will Not See, People You Will Never Meet, New Letters, 83/4

  Mara Buck

  A Year in Oblivion—An Artistic Journey, Hektoen International, Winter

  Aaron Burch

  Subliminal Messages: On Nine Inch Nails’ “Broken,” Catapult, August 23

  Jessica Burstein

  All Politics, Raritan, Summer

  Amy Butcher

  Bare Necessities, Harper’s Magazine, March

  Wendy Call

  Apothecarium, StoryQuarterly, #50

  Brian Calvert

  Down the Dark Mountain, High Country News, July 24

  Leonarda Carranza

  Body Out of Place, Room, 40/3

  Melissa Chadburn

  The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy, Longreads, December

  Alexander Chee

  The Poisoning, Tin House, #72

  Kelly Cherry

  My Beethoven, LitMag, Spring

  James M. Chesbro

  Trains, Zone 3, Spring

  Lee Isaac Chung

  Love Letters, Image, #93

  Steven Church

  On Water Heaters, Earthquakes, and Encountering the Dynamic Sublime, Hotel Amerika, Winter

  Robert Clark

  Father and Son, Conjunctions, #68

  Joshua Cohen

  It’s a Circle, The Point, Summer

  Paula Marantz Cohen

  My Reading Habit, The Yale Review, October

  Rich Cohen

  The Bestest Generation, Vanity Fair, September

  Tyrese L. Coleman

  How to Mourn, Kenyon Review, November/December

  Joan Connor

  At the Circus, Bennington Review, Summer

  Molly Cooney

  Transition: The Renaming of Hope, The Georgia Review, Summer

  John Corbett

  Sun Ra in Sin City, Lapham’s Quarterly, Fall

  Hal Crowther

  Christian Soldiers, Narrative, March 24

  T. K. Dalton

  The Intimate Register, Apogee, #9

  J. D. Daniels

  Signs and Wonders, Esquire, May

  Stephanie Danler

  Engrams, California, The Sewanee Review, Winter

  Rana Dasgupta

  Notes on a Suicide, Granta, #140

  Carol Ann Davis

  On Loose Thread, The Georgia Review, Fall

  William Deresiewicz

  On Political Correctness, The American Scholar, Spring

  Jaquira Diaz

  You Do Not Belong Here, KROnline, May/June

  Mimi Dixon

  Breath, Ploughshares, Winter

  Jennifer Doe

  Any Woman Can Write This, Witness, Winter

  Bill Donahue

  Painting the Fence, Yankee, March/April

  Brian Doyle

  Everyone Thinks That Awful Comes by Itself, But It Doesn’t, The Sun, February

  Jacqueline Doyle

  Family Pictures, The Gettysburg Review, Summer

  Andre Dubus III

  The Descent, River Teeth, Spring

  Irina Dumitrescu

  Swan, Late, Longreads, February 7

  Martha Grace Duncan

  What Not to Do When Your Roommate Is Murdered in Italy: Amanda Knox, Her “Strange” Behavior, and the Italian Legal System, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, 41/1

  Sue Eisenfeld

  Taking It, Potomac Review, #61

  Lucy Ellmann

  The Lost Art of Staying Put, The Baffler, #37

  Osayi Endolyn

  Another Country, Oxford American, Fall

  Joseph Epstein

  Hitting Eighty, The Weekly Standard, January 2/9

  Juliet Escoria

  A Myth about Self-Harm, Catapult, August 11

  G. C. Esselstyn

  Parents and Guardians, New Ohio Review, Spring

  Anne Fadiman

  Jew, The Yale Review, October

  Bruce Falconer

  Stuck in Winesburg, Ohio, Humanities, Fall

  Althea Fann

  Paper Houses, Cimarron Review, Spring/Summer/Fall

  N’Kenge Feagin

  Dead Daddies and White Castles, Lunch Ticket, June 16

  Andrew Ferguson

  Writer’s Seat, The Weekly Standard, September 11

  Matthew Ferrence

  The Foxes of Prince Edward Island, The Gettysburg Review, Spring

  Lucy Ferriss

  Meditation on Pain, Prairie Schooner, Summer

  Gary Fincke

  Inexplicable, Cimarron Review, Spring/Summer/Fall

  Maribeth Fischer

  Damage, The Yale Review, January

  Nick Flynn

  Canopic, Salmagundi, Spring

  Robert Long Foreman

  Nothing Comes Back from the Dump, Electric Literature, January 13

  Krista Foss

  Choosing Your Poison, Prism, Winter

  Patricia Foster

  Worcester: Joe Stalin Is No Longer Here, The Antioch Review, Spring

  Jonathan Franzen

  Under Construction: Manhattan, 1981, The New Yorker, October 23

  Ian Frazier

  Drive Time, The New Yorker, August 28

  J. K. Frerichs

  The Good Life, Gold Man Review, #6

  Zoe Gadegbeku

  My Secondhand Lonely, Slice, Spring/Summer

  Laura Winther Galaviz

  If You Ever, Grist, #10

  Molly Gallentine

  Powder House, Fourth
Genre, Spring

  J. Malcolm Garcia

  A Promise to Keep, War, Literature & the Arts, Fall/Winter

  Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah

  A Most American Terrorist, GQ, August

  John Gifford

  It Nourishes You, Kestrel, Spring

  Susan Golomb

  Jewess in Wool Clothing, Los Angeles Review of Books, October 10

  Rebecca Goodrich

  Guns I Know, Arcadia, Spring

  Elizabeth Fox Gordon

  Against Solidarity, The American Scholar, Autumn

  Michael Graff

  Averaging Out to Me, Success, May

  Vince Granata

  First Visit, The Chattahoochee Review, Spring

  Peter Grandbois

  Passion, Mount Hope, #12

  Sarah Curtis Graziano

  Daughter of a Gun, River Teeth, Fall

  Cynthia R. Greenlee

  The Word Is “Nemesis”: The Fight to Integrate the National Spelling Bee, Longreads, June

  Alice Gregory

  Little Things, Harper’s Magazine, February

  Jennifer Grotz

  An Anxiety of Influence for Girls, The American Poetry Review, January/February

  Melissa Grunow

  Dwelling Place, Solidago Literary Journal, Spring

  Margaret Morganroth Gullette

  The One Who Feeds Us All, Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall

  Katharine Haake

  Diptych: Photography, Brain, Alaska Quarterly Review, Winter/Spring

  Michael Hall

  The Trouble with Innocence, Texas Monthly, April

  Jane Eaton Hamilton

  Skinning the Rabbit, The Sun, July

  Re’Lynn Hansen

  The Han Gan, The Florida Review, Spring

  Githa Hariharan

  When Bodies Speak, World Literature Today, March/April

  Megan Harlan

  Spider Season, AGNI, #85

  Saidiya Hartman

  The Terrible Beauty of the Sun, Brick, #99

  Gladys Haunton

  Headless Henny and the Language of Doubt, The Turnip Truck(s), 3/2

  Karen Hays

  Reconciliation Story, Conjunctions, #68

  Fiona Helmsley

  All the Ways an Era Ends, Hazlitt, October 24

  De Witt Henry

  Notes on Time, Juked, August 8

  Leigh Ann Henton

  Target Lessons, The Washington Post Magazine, March 19

  Michael J. Hess

  James Dean Posters on the Wall, Post Road, #32

  Jennifer Hildebrandt

  Jacket, Bellevue Literary Review, Spring

  Caitlin Hill

  Living Where No One Wants To, Midwestern Gothic, Summer

  Kathryn Anne Hindenlang

  Burn the House Down, Apogee, #9

  Jack Hitt

  The Meaning of Antonin Scalia, Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall

  Edward Hoagland

  Sleeping Together, New Letters, 83/2&3

  Cate Hodorowicz

  Dazzle, Mimic, Blend, The Georgia Review, Fall

  Richard Holinger

  The Art of Passivity, Thread, August 28

  Santi Elijah Holley

  The Process, Portland Review, Spring

  A. M. Homes

  The File: Lost Then Found, Granta, #140

  Kevin Honold

  King Oedipus, The Louisville Review, Spring

  Ann Hood

  What They Saw, The Normal School, Fall

  Marya Hornbacher

  Whether to Brine a Bird, Bellingham Review, Spring

  William Howarth

  Reading Thoreau at 200, The American Scholar, Summer

  William Huhn

  Grave Ivy, Flint Hills Review, #22

  Rachel Hurn

  White Water, The Literary Review, Late Winter

  Naomi Jackson

  Joy Comes in the Morning, Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer

  Toni Jensen

  Women in the Fracklands, Catapult, January 3

  Rosemary Jones

  Flight Behavior, Cimarron Review, Spring/Summer/Fall

  David Joy

  Digging in the Trash, The Bitter Southerner, April 25

  Judith Kalman

  Testifying, Another Chicago Magazine, October 30

  Andrew Kay

  Pilgrim at Tinder Creek, The Point, Winter

  Tyler Keevil

  Swarf, The Missouri Review, 40/1

  Garret Keizer

  Facing North, Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter

  Tabish Khair

  Postcolonial Resentments, The Massachusetts Review, Summer

  Kate Kimball

  Withheld: A Patient Medical History Questionnaire, Emrys Journal, #34

  John Kimmey

  Fear and Trembling, Ruminate, Spring

  Alison Kinney

  How Deep Is Your Love? Lapham’s Quarterly, Fall

  Hannah Kittle

  Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down, Lalitamba, 2017

  Perri Klass

  I’m Not Talking to Anybody, Bellevue Literary Review, Fall

  Geeta Kothari

  Dreams of Home, Cosmonauts Avenue, November

  Brandon Kreitler

  Thought-Work in the Glowing Field, AGNI, #85

  Richard Kreitner

  Paterson: Alexander Hamilton’s Trickle-Down City, The Nation, March 13

  Naira Kuzmich

  Garni-Geghard, Ecotone, Spring/Summer

  Katherine Laidlaw

  A Place of Absorption, Hazlitt, March 16

  Mark Lane

  Keeping Faith, The American Scholar, Spring

  John Langenfeld

  Washing Clothes, The Threepenny Review, Summer

  Richard Scott Larson

  What “Halloween” Taught Me About Queerness, Electric Literature, October 31

  Evan Lavender-Smith

  Post-its, New England Review, 38/4

  David Lazar

  When I’m Awfully Low: On Singing, The Normal School, Spring

  Amy Leach

  The Green Man, A Public Space, #25

  Lawrence Lenhart

  If the Ferret Crosses the Road, Creative Nonfiction, Summer

  E. J. Levy

  Natural World, Passages North, #38

  YiYun Li

  To Speak Is to Blunder, The New Yorker, January 2

  Brandon Lingle

  Stop-Loss, The Normal School, Spring

  Jie Liu

  The Hug, Emrys Journal, #34

  Mel Livatino

  Golf Dreams, Under the Sun, Summer

  Sonja Livingston

  Like This We Begin: An Essay in Two Photographs, Ruminate, Summer

  Amy Long

  A Glossary of Terms: Excerpts from An Encyclopedia of Iatrogenic Opioid Addiction, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Spring/Summer

  Valeria Luiselli

  I Is Another, Freeman’s, October

  Carmen Machado

  The Trash Heap Has Spoken, Guernica, February 13

  Saikat Majumdar

  The Critic as Amateur, New Literary History, Winter

  Eli Payne Mandel

  Footing Slow: A Walk with Keats, Ploughshares Solos, Fall

  Sarah Lapido Manyika

  On Meeting Toni Morrison, Transition, #124

  Jane Marcellus

  My Father’s Tooth, Sycamore Review, 28/2

  Greg Marshall

  Lies My Mother Told Me, Tahoma Literary Review, Spring

  Clancy Martin

  Big Mother, The Believer, October/November

  Lee Martin

  The Healing Line, The Cincinnati Review, Summer

  Marilyn Martin

  The Scapular, Catamaran, Fall

  Michael Martone

  Hat Trick, Southern Humanities Review, Spring

 

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