The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013

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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 Page 50

by Dave Eggers


  Anna Sanford is a senior at Piedmont High School in the Bay Area. She has spent much of her seventeen years in the company of books, many of whom she considers best friends. When not reading, Anna enjoys running, cooking, and spending time with friends. This is her first year of BANR, an experience that has not only taught her about the unusual longevity of a remote Greek island and the courage of a one-eyed matador, but changed her perspective on life itself.

  Frances Saux is a senior at San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, where she studies creative writing. She spends most of her free time reading books by David Foster Wallace. She hopes to someday publish her own stories and essays.

  Abigail Schott-Rosenfield, seventeen, is a senior at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. At the moment she is enjoying Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen. She is also learning Arabic (Ahlan wasahlan. Ismi samir). She is pleased to have completed her second term on the BANR committee. Her muse is Hosanna Rubio.

  Hannah Shevrin is a senior at Community High School in Ann Arbor. This is her third year on BANR, where she has spent her Tuesday evenings laughing with her fellow readers/editors about the oddities of life. She enjoys walking long distances on overcast days while listening to early 2000s R&B soul. One of the neatest moments of her life was when she was on a piece of land owned by a man whose last name was Land. She frequently receives compliments on her handwriting, and she is thinking of selling it. Watch out, Comic Sans!

  Kate Shrayber is seventeen years old and a senior at Gateway High School in San Francisco. In her spare time she enjoys dirty chais and long walks on the beach. She’s currently completing a twelve step program with Bookaholics Anonymous due to her addiction to novels.

  Sarah Starman is a senior at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. Summer is by far her favorite season, and her friends are tired of her saying that. She bakes cakes for people on their birthdays. She has an old-fashioned rotary telephone on her bed, and even when it rings at 2 a.m. she doesn’t disconnect it (mostly because she’s so tired she falls back asleep). She loves ’80s music, raspberries, and of course, BANR.

  Miranda Wiebe is seventeen and a senior at Piedmont High School in the Bay Area. She enjoys running, gardening, ROFL-ing, and listening to Foxy Brown. Being on the BANR committee taught her many important life lessons, such as the theory of Schrodinger’s Cat and how to listen.

  Emma Pearl Willmer-Shiles has too many names, is sixteen years old, and a senior at Sacred Heart High School in San Francisco. She enjoys reading science fiction in both English and Spanish, and has been obsessed with Greek mythology since her brother gave her The Golden Fleece in fifth grade. Drawing is one of her favorite activities and almost everything she owns has doodles on it.

  Sabrina Yerena, fifteen years old, is a sophomore at Immaculate Conception Academy in San Francisco. At ICA, she is part of student council. After school, she can be found at 826 Valencia’s drop-in tutoring program, which she has attended for seven years now. In her free time she likes to play basketball and draw.

  Oscar Zapata graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in 2013 and has lived in San Francisco for the majority of his life. His hobbies include but are not limited to: taking apart his computer and putting it back together again, engaging strangers in friendly conversation, spending way too much money on his collection of hi-fi headphones, and wasting time on the internet.

  Very special thanks to Scott Cohen, Nicole Angeloro, and Mark Robinson. Thanks also to 826 National, 826 Valencia, 826 Michigan, Laura Howard, Dan McKinley, Sunra Thompson, Brian McMullen, Alyson Sinclair, Isaac Fitzgerald, Jordan Bass, Sam Riley, Henry W. Leung, Jia Tolentino, Mimi Lok, Juliana Sloane, McKenna Stayner, Rachel Khong, Soraya Okuda, Jordan Karnes, Clara Sankey, Em-J Staples, Cliff Mayotte, Brian Christian, Chelsea Hogue, Gerald Richards, Ryan Lewis, Yalie Kamara, Raúl J. Alcantar, Emilie Coulson, Lauren Hall, María Inés Montes, Miranda Tsang, Gretchen Schrafft, Dana Riess, Naoki O’Bryan, Allie Washkin, Nolan Boomer, Erica Plumlee, Jessica McHugh, Paolo Yumol, Alex Ryan Bauer, and Nate Rogers.

  Notable Nonrequired Reading of 2012

  CHRIS ADRIAN

  Grand Rounds, Granta

  DANIEL ALARCON

  The Provincials, Granta

  KATYA APEKINA

  Maureen and Marjorie, The Iowa Review

  MATTHEW BAKER

  A Cruel Gap-Toothed Boy, The Missouri Review

  SHANE BAUER

  Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons, Mother Jones

  JOSH BEGLEY

  A Gated Community, Tomorrow Magazine

  BRIAN BOIES

  A House Well Furnished, Zyzzyva

  GINA LUJAN BOUBION

  The American Dream is a Combination Lock, The Antioch Review

  CHARLES BOWDEN

  Return to the Arkansas Delta, National Geographic

  JENNIFER CACICIO

  The Jackson Six, Lemon

  MELISSA CHADBURN

  The Throwaways, The Rumpus

  PAMELA COLLOFF

  The Innocent Man, Texas Monthly

  RICH COHEN

  Pirate City, The Paris Review

  GUY DELISLE

  Jerusalem, Drawn and Quarterly

  JAMES DEWILLE

  Last Days on Rossmore, American Short Fiction

  JUNOT DÍAZ

  Miss Lora, The New Yorker

  SUSAN DOMINUS

  What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy, The New York Times Magazine

  ROB EHLE

  Chemistry, Zyzzyva

  PATRICIA ENGEL

  Aida, The Harvard Review

  KIERA FELDMAN

  Grace in Broken Arrow, This Land Press

  AMITY GAIGE

  The Soul Keeps the Body Up, One Story

  J. MALCOLM GARCIA

  City of the Dead, New Letters

  VARUN GAURI

  The Assistant Secretary, The Asian American Literary Review

  JIM GAVIN

  Bermuda, Zoetrope: All-Story

  ROXANE GAY

  We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness, American Short Fiction

  DAVID GESSNER

  Brant’s Requiem, Orion Magazine

  ELIZABETH GILBERT

  The Finest Wife, The Rumpus

  JENNIFER GONNERMAN

  The Man Who Charged Himself With Murder, New York Magazine

  RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ

  The Great Poetry Caper, The Poetry Foundation

  AMELIA GRAY

  These Are the Fables, Hobart

  L.K. HANSON

  Some Pages from the Story of My Hand, Ploughshares

  JOSHUA HARMON

  The Annotated Mix-Tape #8, Make Magazine

  JOEANN HART

  Piece of History, Fifth Wednesday Journal

  JUSTIN HECKERT

  The Hazards of Growing Up Painlessly, The New York Times Magazine

  ALEKSANDAR HEMON

  War Dogs, Granta

  A.M. HOMES

  Hello Everybody, Electric Literature

  RENÉ HOUTRIDES

  Griffonia, The Georgia Review

  GEETHA IYER

  The Glass World-Builder, Gulf Coast

  TANIA JAMES

  The Scriptological Review, A Public Space

  LACY M. JOHNSON

  The Addict, Creative Nonfiction

  HEIDI JULAVITS

  This Feels So Real, Harper’s

  JESSICA FRANCIS KANE

  American Lawn, A Public Space

  JAY CASPIAN KANG

  Question of Identity, Grantland

  PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE

  Cocaine Incorporated, The New York Times Magazine

  VICTORIA KELLY

  Finding the Good Light, The Carolina Quarterly

  DAWNA KEMPER

  Joshua Tree, Zyzzyva

  PATRICIA GRACE KING

  Rubia, The Florida Review Publications

  PHIL KLAY

  After Action Report, Tin House

  NAIRA KUZMICHr />
  The Fearcatcher of East Hollywood, Cutbank

  CLARENCE LAI

  Start Here, Hunger Mountain

  Dan P. LEE

  4:52 on Christmas Morning, New York Magazine

  J. ROBERT LENNON

  The Cottage on the Hill, Unstuck

  BEN LERNER

  Contest of Words, Harper’s

  GIDEON LEWIS-KRAUS

  Dance Dance Revolution, GQ

  PHILLIP LOPATE

  Why I Remain a Baseball Fan, Ploughshares

  CHARLES C. MANN

  State of the Species, Orion Magazine

  ANDY MARTIN

  Hair Piece: Derrida in the Wilderness, Raritan

  ERIK MARTINY Sartorius, Fjords

  KELLY MCEVERS

  The Crackdown, The Washington Monthly

  DAVID MCGLYNN

  Leviathan, Creative Nonfiction

  BRUCE MCKAY

  The Wheel at the Cistern, Zyzzyva

  KYLE MELLEN

  Lighting in You a Tremendous Fire, The Mid-American Review

  CHINA MIEVILLE

  Oh, London, You Drama Queen, The New York Times Magazine

  MARY MILLER

  He Says I Am a Little Oven, The Mid-American Review

  OTTESSA MOSHFEGH

  Disgust, The Paris Review

  LENORE MYKA

  Wood Houses, West Branch

  DINA NAYERI

  Arya, The Alaska Quarterly Review

  AMANDA PARRISH

  Prime Time, N+1

  KIRK PERRY

  Heaven’s Chief Musician, The Alaskan Quarterly Review

  RICHARD POWERS

  Genie, Byliner

  JOSEPHINE ROWE

  The Vending Machine at the End of the World, The Iowa Review

  SABRINA RUBIN ERDELY

  The Gangster Princess of Beverly Hills, Rolling Stone

  EMILY RUSKOVICH

  An Impending Change of Heart, Zoetrope: All-Story

  KAREN RUSSELL

  Reeling for the Empire, Tin House

  RUSS RYMER

  Vanishing Voices, National Geographic

  ELI SANDERS

  The Shooter, River Teeth

  ELI SASLOW

  A Trip to the Threshing Floor, ESPN the Magazine

  GEORGE SAUNDERS

  The Semplica-Girl Diaries, The New Yorker

  ELIZABETH SCHULTE Borders, Ninth Letter

  MOLLY SENTELL HAILE

  Wild Man Blues, Oxford American

  MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD

  The Great Central Pacific Guano Company, American Short Fiction

  JOHANNA SKIBSRUD

  The Electric Man, Ecotone

  ANNA DELLA SUBIN

  A Very Still Life, Bidoun

  LAURA VAN DEN BERG

  Lessons, American Short Fiction

  MARK WARREN

  Daddy: My Father’s Last Words, Esquire

  DANIEL WESSLER RIORDAN

  The Earth Will Swallow You, Indiana Review

  TOM WILLIAMS

  The Hotel Joseph Conrad, Jelly Bucket

  JANE WONG

  Unsent Correspondence, Memoir Journal

  JENNY ZHANG

  Outsider/Insider, Rookie

  About 826 National

  Proceeds from this book benefit youth literacy

  A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF the cover price of this book goes to 826 National, a network of eight youth tutoring, writing, and publishing centers in eight cities around the country.

  Since the birth of 826 National in 2002, our goal has been to assist students ages 6–18 with their writing skills while helping teachers get their classes passionate about writing. We do this with a vast army of volunteers who donate their time so we can give as much one-on-one attention as possible to the students whose writing needs it. Our mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

  Through volunteer support, each of the eight 826 chapters—in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, DC—provides drop-in tutoring, class field trips, writing workshops, and in-schools programs, all free of charge, for students, classes, and schools. 826 centers are especially committed to supporting teachers, offering services and resources for English Language Learners, and publishing student work. Each of the 826 chapters works to produce professional-quality publications written entirely by young people, to forge relationships with teachers in order to create innovative workshops and lesson plans, to inspire students to write and appreciate the written word, and to rally thousands of enthusiastic volunteers to make it all happen. By offering all of our programming for free, we aim to serve families who cannot afford to pay for the level of personalized instruction their children receive through 826 chapters.

  The demand for 826 National’s services is tremendous. We work with more than 6,000 volunteers and over 30,000 students nationally. We host hundreds of field trips and workshops, and we welcome over 200 students per day for after-school tutoring. At many of our centers, our field trips are fully booked almost a year in advance, teacher requests for in-school tutor support continue to rise, and the majority of our evening and weekend workshops have waitlists.

  826 National volunteers are local community residents, professional writers, teachers, artists, college students, parents, bankers, lawyers, and retirees from a wide range of professions. These passionate individuals can be found at all of our centers after school, sitting side-by-side with our students, providing one-on-one attention. They can be found running our field trips, or helping an entire classroom of local students learn how to write a story, or assisting student writers during one of our Young Authors’ Book Programs.

  All day and in a variety of ways, our volunteers are actively connecting with youth from the communities we serve.

  To learn more or get involved, please visit:

  826 National: www.826national.org

  826 San Francisco: www.826valencia.org

  826 New York: www.826nyc.org

  826 Los Angeles: www.826la.org

  826 Chicago: www.826chi.org

  826 Ann Arbor: www.826mi.org

  826 Seattle: www.826seattle.org

  826 Boston: www.826boston.org

  826 Washington, DC: www.826dc.org

  826 VALENCIA

  Named for the street address of the building it occupies in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, 826 Valencia opened on April 8, 2002 and consists of a writing lab; a street-front, student-friendly retail pirate store that partially funds its programs; and satellite classrooms in two local middle schools. 826 Valencia has developed programs that reach students at every possible opportunity—In school, after school, in the evenings, or on the weekends. Since its doors opened, over fifteen hundred volunteers—including published authors, magazine founders, SAT course instructors, documentary filmmakers, and other professionals—have donated their time to work with thousands of students. These volunteers allow the center to offer all of its services for free.

  826 NYC

  826NYC’s writing center opened its doors in September 2004. Since then its programs have offered over one thousand students opportunities to improve their writing and to work side by side with hundreds of community volunteers. 826NYC has also built a satellite tutoring center, created in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library, which has introduced library programs to an entirely new community of students. The center publishes a handful of books of student writing each year.

  826 LA

  826LA benefits greatly from the wealth of cultural and artistic resources in the Los Angeles area. The center regularly presents a free workshop at the Armand Hammer Museum in which esteemed artists, writers, and performers teach their craft. 826LA has collaborated with the J. Paul Getty Museum to create Community Photoworks, a months-long program that taught seventh-graders the basics of photographic composition and analysis, sent them into
Los Angeles with cameras, and then helped them polish artist statements. Since opening in March 2005, 826LA has provided thousands of hours of free one-on-one writing instruction, held summer camps for English language learners, given students sportswriting training in the Lakers’ press room, and published love poems written from the perspectives of leopards.

 

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