The Best American Essays 2013
Page 40
HARRY MARK PETRAKIS
The Three Lost Men, Notre Dame Review, Summer/Fall.
DAISY PITKIN
An Algorithm, Cutbank, no. 77.
TAYLOR PLIMPTON
My Father’s Voice, TheNewYorker.com, June 17.
EILEEN POLLACK
Ranch House, New England Review, vol. 32, no. 4.
DAWN POTTER
Not Writing the Poem, Sewanee Review, Winter.
ROLF POTTS
Tourist Snapshots, The Common, no. 3.
ROBERT ANDREW POWELL
In the Writers’ Room, Harper’s Magazine, November.
KRISTIN PREVALLET
Blood on the Illusion, Fourth Genre, Spring.
FRANCINE PROSE
The Giving Tree, Real Simple, May.
CORINNE PURTILL
My Book Was a Bad Idea, Salon.com, June 27.
MARY QUADE
Hatch, Flyway, vol. 14, no. 3, & vol. 15, no. 1.
BERNARD QUETCHENBACH
The Woods Are Burning, Ascent, November 12.
KIERAN QUINLAN
Kirwan Street, in Memory, New Hibernia Review, Winter.
COLIN RAFFERTY
Notes Toward Building the Monument, Witness, Spring.
JESSICA RAIMI
Ballet School, Antioch Review, Winter.
CATHERINE REID
Catch and Release, Under the Sun, Summer.
JAMES RIOUX
Tattoos, Death Metal, Shaving, and Other Ironies, Five Points, vol. 14, no. 3.
CINTHIA RITCHIE
Running, Sport Literate, vol. 8, no. 1.
JOHN G. RODWAN Jr.
Nice Things About Detroit, American Interest, May/June.
JAMES SILAS ROGERS
Outside Metaphor, Ruminate, no. 22.
DAVID ROMPF
A Personal History of Staring, Hotel Amerika, Spring.
LEE ANN RORIPAUGH
Poem as Mirror Box: Mirror Neurons, Emotions, Phantom Limbs, and Poems of Loss and Elegy, jubilat, no. 21.
NOELLE ROSE
A Heart for Knowing, Anderbo, n.d.
NATANIA ROSENFELD
Gravity, Fifth Wednesday, Spring.
ALEX ROSS
Love on the March, The New Yorker, November 12.
DAVY ROTHBART
Human Snowball, Paris Review, Summer.
STEVEN D. RUCKER
A Terminal Chord, Upstreet, no. 8.
PATRICK RYAN
Grand Mal, Granta.com, October.
SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
The Way of Imagination, Georgia Review, Summer.
TED SANDERS
The Playroom: A Diagram, Southern Review, Summer.
REG SANER
Married Grammar: The Deep Structure, College Hill Review, no. 8, Summer.
RALPH JAMES SAVARESE
River of Words, Raft of Our Conjoined Neurologies, Fourth Genre, Spring.
ANNITA SAWYER
The Crazy One, Bellevue Literary Review, vol. 12, no. 1, Spring.
ELIZABETH SCARBORO
No Man’s Land, Bellevue Literary Review, vol. 12, no. 2, Fall.
MELITA SCHAUM
Adam’s Curse, Briar Cliff Review, no. 24.
JILL SCHEPMANN
Our Country, Parcel, Fall.
BRANDON R. SCHRAND
Esto Perpetua, Ecotone, Spring.
NIKKI SCHULAK
On Not Seeing Whales, Bellevue Literary Review, vol. 12, no. 2, Fall.
GRETA SCHULER
Empty Boxes, Chattahoochee Review, Spring.
STEVEN SCHWARTZ
The Unbearable Lightness of Not Being There, Massachusetts Review, Spring.
AMY LEE SCOTT
Convergence, Gulf Coast, Summer/Fall.
ANDREW D. SCRIMGEOUR
Handled with Care, New York Times Book Review, December 30.
DAVID SEDARIS
Understanding Owls, The New Yorker, October 22.
LORE SEGAL
The Exes in My Life, Antioch Review, Spring.
DANIELE SEISS
My Mother’s Ashes, Washington Post Magazine, May 13.
PETER SELGIN
The Kuhreihen Melody, Missouri Review, Spring.
LISA SHANNON
Blindfolds, Anderbo, n.d.
BILL SHERWONIT
The Last Nature Writer, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Winter.
DAVID SHIELDS
Saving My Life, Little Star, no. 3.
T. M. SHINE
American Idle, Washington Post Magazine, July 15.
JAN SHOEMAKER
Believer, Make, Winter.
JUDITH SHULEVITZ
The Grayest Generation, New Republic, December 20.
KEANE SHUM
My Short American Decade, Iowa Review, Winter.
LAUREN SLATER
The Spotless Mind, Elle, September.
ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER
Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, The Atlantic, July/August.
DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Patient Zero, Narratively, November.
MARK SLOUKA
The Academy of Sciences, Ploughshares, Fall.
JANNA MALAMUD SMITH
An Absorbing Errand, The Sun, September.
LISA SOLOD
Black Boots for the End of the World, Huffington Post, November 28.
KRISTINE SOMERVILLE
Camera Artist: The Portraiture of Cecil Beaton, Missouri Review, Winter.
MAYA SONENBERG
My Mother’s Closet, South Loop Review, no. 13.
ANA MARIA SPAGNA
Where You’d Rather Be, Under the Sun, Summer.
WILLARD SPIEGELMAN
Senior Reading, New Haven Review, Summer.
ELEANOR STANFORD
Metamorphosis: Six Studies, Indiana Review, Summer.
BRIAN JAY STANLEY
A Sense of All Sorrows, Pleiades, Summer.
GEORGE STEINER
Fragments (Somewhat Charred), Kenyon Review, Summer.
JEFFREY STEINGARTEN
Turning Japanese, Vogue, February.
J. DAVID STEVENS
For Janet, at Forty, Gettysburg Review, Spring.
ANGELA STEWART
Rot, Gettysburg Review, Summer.
ALISON STINE
The Last Hotel, Zone 3, Fall.
PETER STINE
Detroit Wrecks, 1982, Antioch Review, Spring.
SEBASTIAN STOCKMAN
The Problem with Sportswriting, The Millions, August 6.
ELIZABETH STONE
Husband Emeritus, Gettysburg Review, Spring.
EMILY STONE
What Happens: Only You Know the Magic Words to Make it Possible, North American Review, Spring.
SARAH PAYNE STUART
Pilgrim’s Progress, The New Yorker, July 30.
NED STUCKEY-FRENCH
Don’t Be Cruel: An Argument for Elvis, Normal School, Fall.
IRA SUKRUNGRUANG
To Kill a Thought: A Confession, The Pinch, Fall.
ROBERT SULLIVAN
Almanac, A Public Space, no. 16.
KELLY SUNDBERG
Like Mourners’ Bread, Slice, no. 10.
CAROLINE SUTTON
Eclipsed, Southern Humanities Review, Spring.
PATRICK SYMMES
Who Pinched My Ride?, Outside, February.
TERENCE TAO
E Pluribus Unum: From Complexity, Universality, Daedalus, Summer.
TESS TAYLOR
The Waste Land App, Threepenny Review, Summer.
KERRY TEMPLE
My Life in Clothes, Notre Dame Magazine, Spring.
PAUL THEROUX
A Man and His Islands, Smithsonian, May.
FRANCIS-NOEL THOMAS
Tea, New England Review, vol. 33, no. 1.
KIM TINGLEY
Whisper of the Wild, New York Times Magazine, March 18.
AN TRAN
Redshift, Carolina Quarterly, Winter.
BRIAN TRAPP
My City in Two Dog Parks, Black Warrior Review, Fall/Winter.
JASON TUCKER
The Least Objectionable Thing, Southeast Review, vol. 30, no. 2.
SPRING ULMER
A Short History of Our Flesh and Blood, Southern Indiana Review, Spring.
MELANIE UNRUH
The Place Called Mother, Post Road, no. 23.
LUIS ALBERTO URREA
The Mr. Smith Syndrome, ZYZZYVA, Fall.
MICHELLE VALOIS
Good Form, Massachusetts Review, Winter.
JEFF VANDERMEER
The Art of the Literary Fake (with Violin), New Haven Review, Summer.
JOE ANTONIO VARGAS
Shadow Americans, Time, June 25.
NATASHA VARGAS-COOPER
Hard Blows, New Inquiry, August 22.
SOPHIA VELTFORT
Missing, Harvard Review, no. 42.
MARIA VENEGAS
The Devil’s Spine, Ploughshares, Spring.
PRIMO VENTELLO
Das Schweinehund, Carolina Quarterly, Spring/Summer.
ROBERT VIVIAN
Always a River, River Teeth, Fall.
EMILY VIZZO
A Personal History of Dirt, North American Review, Summer.
ANNA VODICKA
As Seen on TV, Ninth Letter, Spring/Summer.
MATTHEW VOLLMER
NeVer ForgeT, Ecotone, Spring.
JANNA VOUGHT
Moments of Snow, Under the Gum Tree, October.
WYN WACHHORST
Crossing the Wide Missouri, Yale Review, July.
DANIEL J. WAKIN
Dispossesed, New York Times Magazine, January 15.
JERALD WALKER
Captain Love, River Teeth, Fall.
NICOLE WALKER
Skin of the Earth, Zone 3, Fall.
MADDY WALSH
Placer County Jail, Under the Gum Tree, October.
WILLIAM EATON WARNER
On Pointing, Agni, no. 75.
STEVE WASSERMAN
The Amazon Effect, The Nation, June 18.
ZACHARY WATTERSON
Open Late Hours, Post Road, no. 23.
ADAM WEINSTEIN
Some Remarks on Teeth, Conjunctions, no. 58.
STEFANIE WEISMAN
In Search of E. B., Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter.
SHEILA WELLER
Suddenly That Summer, Vanity Fair, July.
SARAH WELLS
Country Boys, City Boys, River Teeth, Spring.
COLSON WHITEHEAD
A Psychotronic Childhood, The New Yorker, June 4 & 11.
JOEL WHITNEY
The Paris Review, the Cold War, and the CIA, Salon.com, May 27.
JESSICA WILBANKS
Father of Disorder, Ruminate, no. 24, Summer.
JOE WILKINS
Eleven Kinds of Sky, Orion, January/February.
BROOKE WILLIAMS
Moving Stones, High Desert Journal, Fall.
C. K. WILLIAMS
On Being Old, American Poetry Review, July/August.
FRANK WILSON
Time Crystals, Boulevard, Fall.
JASON WILSON
Food for Thought, Washington Post Magazine, September 16.
CHRISTIAN WIMAN
Mortify Our Wolves, American Scholar, Autumn.
SHERRY WONG
Dandelion, Prism, Fall.
ERIN WOOD
We Scar, We Heal, We Rise, Anderbo, n.d.
STEPHANIE WORTMAN
Greens, Southwest Review, vol. 97, no. 3.
ROLF ALBERT YNGVE
Three Tips for Those Returning from Deployments: A Memoir, War, Literature, and the Arts, no. 24.
NINA YUN
Kimchee, Fourth Genre, Fall.
VICTOR ZAPANA
Shaken, The New Yorker, November 26.
ARIANNE ZWARTJES
This Suturing of Wounds or Words, Gulf Coast, Winter/Spring.
JESSE ZWICK
Up in the Air, New Republic, July 12.
Notable Special Issues of 2012
American Letters & Commentary, The Future of the Book, eds. Catherine Kasper and David Ray Vance, no. 23.
Antioch Review, Intimate Memoirs, ed. Robert S. Fogarty, Winter.
Atrium, Graphic, guest eds. Catherine Belling and MK Czerwiec, Spring.
The Baffler, The High, the Low, the Vibrant!, ed. John Summers, no. 20.
Chattahoochee Review, Ireland, ed. Anna Schachner, Fall/Winter.
Chautauqua, War & Peace, ed. Diana Hume George, no. 9.
Conjunctions, Riveted: The Obsession Issue, ed. Brad Morrow, no. 58.
Georgia Review, Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, ed. Stephen Corey, Summer.
Hobart, Luck, ed. Aaron Burch, no. 13.
Hunger Mountain, Labyrinths, ed. Miciah Bay Gault, no. 17.
Image, The Word-Soaked World, ed. Gregory Wolfe, no. 75.
Lapham’s Quarterly, Magic Shows, ed. Lewis Lapham, Summer.
Mamalode, Capacity, ed. Elke Govertsen, Winter.
Manoa, Almost Heaven, ed. Frank Stewart, vol. 23, no. 2.
New Criterion, Hilton Kramer, 1928—2012, ed. Roger Kimball, May.
New Letters, Resilience and Art, ed. Robert Stewart, vol. 78, nos. 3 & 4.
Normal School, Film and Music Spectacular, eds. Sophie Beck, Steven Church, and Matt Roberts, Fall.
Notre Dame Review, Memes and Memories, ed. William O’Rourke, Summer/Fall.
Pen America, Teachers, ed. M Mark, no. 16.
Ploughshares, Truth: All-Essay Issue, ed. Patricia Hampl, Fall.
River Styx, End of the World, ed. Richard Newman, no. 88.
Sewanee Review, Bound by the Cause of Words, ed. George Core, Fall.
Slice, Growing Up, ed. Elizabeth Blachman, Spring/Summer.
Texas Monthly, How to Raise a Texan, ed. Jake Silverstein, September.
Tin House, Science Fair, ed. Rob Spillman, no. 51.
Witness, Special Issue: Disaster, ed. Amber Withycombe, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring
About the Editor
CHERYL STRAYED, editor, is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild, the New York Times bestseller Tiny Beautiful Things, and the novel Torch. Strayed’s writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Allure, the Missouri Review, the Sun, the Rumpus—where she has written the popular “Dear Sugar” column since 2010—and elsewhere.
Footnotes
1. Some of the victims’ names have been changed.
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2. Among friends, I almost always refer to it as such. To do otherwise would endow it with undue weight.
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3. Radiation’s baldness is true baldness, since hair falls out at the roots. No sign of its former inhabitant.
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