The Best American Essays 2013

Cheryl Strayed, Robert Atwan, Cheryl Strayed, Robert Atwan

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780544105744
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Essays
• Index: Literature

Curated by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild, this volume shares intimate perspectives from some of today's most acclaimed writers. As Cheryl Strayed explains in her introduction, "the invisible, unwritten last line of every essay should be and nothing was ever the same again." The reader, in other words, should feel the ground shift, if even only a bit. In this edition of the acclaimed anthology series, Strayed has gathered twenty-six essays that each capture an inexorable, tectonic shift in life. Personal and deeply perceptive, this collection examines a broad range of life experiences—from a man's relationship with Mormonism to a woman's search for a serial killer; from listening to the music of Joni Mitchell to surviving five months at sea; from triaging injured soldiers to giving birth to a daughter; and much more. The Best American Essays 2013 includes entries by Alice Munro, Zadie Smith, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Dagoberto Gilb, Vicki Weiqi Yang, J.D. Daniels, Michelle Mirsky, and others.

Notable Essays of 2012

SELECTED BY ROBERT ATWAN

ANWAR F. ACCAWI

The Camel, The Sun, October.

JOAN ACOCELLA

Once upon a Time, The New Yorker, July 23.

JUDITH ADKINS

The Tree, the Forest, Colorado Review, Fall/Winter.

JERRY ADLER

Raging Bulls, Wired, September.

JASON ALBERT

Down and Out in a Repurposed Troop Carrier, Morning News, August 27.

PAMELA ALEXANDER

Brush of Wildness, Cimarron Review, Fall.

SUE ALLISON

What I Did Without You, Crazyhorse, Spring.

HILTON ALS

I Am Your Conscious, I Am Love, Harper’s Magazine, December.

AIMEE ANDERSON

Indian Springs, Gargoyle, no. 58.

DONALD ANDERSON

Gathering Noise, Epoch, vol. 61, no. 2.

ISAAC ANDERSON

Lord God Bird, Image, no. 72.

ANONYMOUS

The Facts of the Matter, TriQuarterly, October 22.

DAVID ANTIN

White Ravens Black Helicopters, Southern Review, Spring.

JACOB M. APPEL

Livery, Southeast Review, vol. 30, no. 1.

ELIZABETH ARNOLD

Crossing the Divide, Gettysburg Review, Autumn.

ALAN ARRIVEE

The Appropriate Use of Hands, Florida Review, Summer.

CHRIS ARTHUR

Looking Behind “Nothing’s” Door, Hotel Amerika, Spring.

OLUMAYOWA ATTE

Road to Ibadan, New Letters, vol. 79, no. 1.

TIMOTHY AUBRY

Sizing Up Oprah, The Point, Spring.

LAURA JEAN BAKER

Year of the Tiger, War, Literature, and the Arts, no. 24.

ROSECRANS BALDWIN

Our French Connection, Morning News, May 29.

RICK BAROT

Morandi Sonnet, ZYZZYVA, Winter.

JOHN BARTH

The End?, Granta, Winter.

RICK BASS

The Larch: A Love Story, Orion, September/October.

ELISSA BASSIST

The Never-to-Be Bride, New York Times, Sunday, April 29.

CHARLES BAXTER

Undoings: An Essay in Three Parts, Colorado Review, Spring.

CRIS BEAM

Mother, Stranger, Atavist, January.

MARK BEAVER

Taxidermy, Third Coast, Fall.

LOUIS BEGLEY

My Europe, New York Review of Books, April 5.

THOMAS BELLER

The Fun of Bad Business, Oxford American, no. 77.

GEOFFREY BENT

The Virtuoso, Boulevard, Fall.

MISCHA BERLINSKI

A Farewell to Haiti, New York Review of Books, March 22.

FLYNN BERRY

Surfing, Los Angeles Review, Fall.

SASKIA...