Edited and with an Introduction by Alexander Chee
Robert Atwan, Series Editor
WHAT WRITING WILL OUTLIVE US? IN HIS INTRODUCTION, GUEST EDITOR Alexander Chee eloquently describes this year's Best American Essays as a "poker hand laid down in a bet against oblivion." And what an unbeatable hand this volume contains—twenty-three masterfully crafted essays brimming with insight and emotional truth. From a writer turning to an AI language generator to write about her sister's death, to a son grappling with the memory of his abusive mother, to a pilgrim walking in the shadow of a missing woman, these selections interrogate the past and illuminate the present. A stunning, eye-opening collection full of rich and diverse experiences, this enduring anthology will capture the heart and stay in the mind.
Copyright © 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
Introduction copyright © 2022 by Alexander Chee.
ISSN 0888-3742
ISBN 978-0-358-65887-0
Buy The Best American Essays 2022 on Amazon
Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction xix
BRIAN BLANCHFIELD. Abasement 1
from Territory
ELISSA WASHUTA. Drinking Story 5
from Harper's Bazaar
DEBRA GWARTNEY. Fire and Ice 10
from Granta
VAUHINI VARA. Ghosts 21
from The Believer
MELISSA FEBOS. The Wild, Sublime Body 35
from The Yale Review
ANTHONY VEASNA SO. Baby Yeah 43
from n+1
JUNG HAE CHAE. The Gye, the No-Name Hair Salon, the Coup d'Ètat, and the Small Dreamers 57
from New England Review
JUSTIN TORRES. It Had to Be Gold 71
from Los Angeles Times Image
ALEX MARZANO-LESNEVICH. Futurity 79
from Harvard Review
NAOMI JACKSON. Her Kind 92
from Harper's Magazine
ANGELIQUE STEVENS. Ghost Bread 105
from Prism
LINA MOUNZER. The Gamble 131
from Freeman's
JASON BROWN. The Wrong Jason Brown 109
from The New Yorker
TANNER AKONI LAGUATAN. Between These Lives, Azeroth 145
from Wired
CALVIN GIMPELEVICH. Among Men 152
from Ploughshares
ANDREA LONG CHU. China Brain 165
from n+1
KAITLYN GREENIDGE. What She Would Always and Should Always Be Doing 182
from BuzzFeed
GARY SHTEYNGART. My Gentile Region 190
from The New Yorker
JESUS QUINTERO. Anatomy of a Botched Assimilation 208
from Your Impossible Voice
ELIAS RODRIQUES. Mother Country 231
from Virginia Quarterly Review
AUBE REY LESCURE. At the Bend of the Road 245
from Guernica
ERIKA J. SIMPSON. If You Ever Find Yourself 257
from The Audacity
RYAN BRADLEY. The Lost List 270
from The Sewanee Review
Contributors' Notes 286
Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2021 291
Notable Special Issues of 2021 304
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