The Best American Essays 2014 (37 page)

 

B
ARRY
L
OPEZ
, an essayist and short story writer, is the author of fourteen books of fiction and nonfiction. He is the recipient of numerous literary and cultural honors and awards, including the National Book Award for
Arctic Dreams
.

 

C
HRIS
O
FFUTT
grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, a former mining town of two hundred people in the Daniel Boone National Forest. He is the author of two books of nonfiction,
The Same River Twice
and
No Heroes;
two collections of short stories,
Kentucky Straight
and
Out of the Woods;
and one novel,
The Good Brother.
Offutt has published more than seventy stories and essays, including appearances in the
New York Times, Esquire, GQ,
and
Playboy
and on National Public Radio. He has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Granta
included him in their list of the top twenty young American writers. He wrote screenplays for HBO's
True Blood
and
Treme
and Showtime's
Weeds
and TV pilots for Fox, Lionsgate, and CBS. His TV work was nominated for an Emmy. He lives in rural Lafayette County and is a professor of English at the University of Mississippi.

 

Z
ADIE
S
MITH
is the author of four novels:
White Teeth
(2000),
The Autograph Man
(2002),
On Beauty
(2005), which won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and
NW
(2012). She is also the author of
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays
(2009) and the editor of a story collection,
The Book of Other People
(2007). She has taught creative writing at New York University since 2010.

 

E
LIZABETH
T
ALLENT'S
stories have appeared in
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, The Best American Short Stories
, and
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories.
Her novel
Museum Pieces
and her collections
In Constant Flight, Time with Children
, and
Honey
will be reissued as e-books this year. She teaches in Stanford University's creative writing program.

 

W
ELLS
T
OWER
is a correspondent for
GQ
magazine and the author of
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
, a collection of short fiction. He lives, on average, in North Carolina.

 

J
ERALD
W
ALKER
is the author of
Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption
, recipient of the PEN New England/L. L. Winship Award for Nonfiction. His essays have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including three previous times in this series, and his memoir about growing up in a doomsday cult will be published in 2015. Walker is an associate professor of creative writing at Emerson College.

 

P
AUL
W
EST
is the author of fifty books, including
My Father's War: A Memoir
, the novels
The Tent of Orange Mist
and
The Immensity of the Here and Now
, and a collection of poems,
Tea with Osiris.
Among other awards, he has been honored by the French government with a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

 

J
AMES
W
OOD
is a staff writer at
The New Yorker
and professor of the practice of literary criticism at Harvard University. He has written three books of essays,
The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self
, and
The Fun Stuff;
a critical study,
How Fiction Works;
and a novel,
The Book Against God
.

 

B
ARON
W
ORMSER
is the author or coauthor of thirteen full-length books and a poetry chapbook. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. From 2000 to 2006 he served as poet laureate of the state of Maine. He teaches in the Fairfield University MFA program and is director of educational outreach for the Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire.

S
ELECTED BY
R
OBERT
A
TWAN

 

R
AYMOND
A
BBOTT

A Warm Spring Rain,
Open 24 Hours.

S
UE
A
LLISON

Additional Tenses You Should Know,
Apt
, no. 3.

M
ARY
M
ARGARET
A
LVARADO

Dear Joshua,
Wag's Revue
, Fall.

A
ARON
A
PPS

Barbecue Catharsis,
Carolina Quarterly
, Fall.

C
HRIS
A
RTHUR

How's the Enemy?
Literary Review
, vol. 56, no. 1.

R
ILLA
A
SKEW

Rhumba,
Tin House
, Fall (no. 57).

L
INDA
A
TWELL

Three Seconds,
Perceptions: A Magazine of the Arts
, May.

 

K
AREN
B
ABINE

An Island Triptych,
New Hibernia Review
, Spring.

N
ICHOLSON
B
AKER

Wrong Answer,
Harper's Magazine
, September.

P
OE
B
ALLANTINE

The Tyranny of Paradise,
The Sun
, June.

L
INDA
B
AMBER

The Miracle of My Freedom,
Kenyon Review
, Spring.

J
UDITH
B
ARRINGTON

An Aristocratic Murder,
1966:
A Journal of Creative Nonfiction
, vol. 1, no. 1.

T
IM
B
ASCOM

Picturing the Personal Essay: A Visual Guide,
Creative Nonfiction
, no. 49.

E
MILY
B
ASS

Zulu Love Story,
Slice
, no. 12.

R
ICK
B
ASS

The Thinness of the Soil,
Ecotone
, Spring.

C
ONGER
B
EASLEY
, J
R
.

Wind Dancers,
New Letters
, vol. 79, nos. 3 and 4.

E
LIZABETH
B
ENEDICT

My Inheritance,
Salmagundi
, Winter.

C
HARLES
B
ERNSTEIN

Disfiguring Abstraction,
Critical Inquiry
, Spring.

J
EREMY
B
ERNSTEIN

A Song for Molly,
American Scholar
, Winter.

L
EO
B
ERSANI

“I Can Dream, Can't I?”
Critical Inquiry
, Autumn.

W
ARNER
B
ERTHOFF

Memories of Okinawa,
Sewanee Review
, Winter.

E
LLIS
J. B
IDERSON

A Complete Thought,
Tampa Review
, no. 45/46.

C
HELSEA
B
IONDOLILLO

Phrenology: An Attempt,
Hayden's Ferry Review,
Fall/Winter.

K
ATE
J
ARVIK
B
IRCH

One More Artificial Organ,
Indiana Review
, Winter.

S
VEN
B
IRKERTS

One Long Sentence,
Threepenny Review
, Summer.

E
ULA
B
ISS

Sentimental Medicine,
Harper's Magazine
, January.

B
UZZ
B
ISSINGER

My Gucci Addiction,
GQ
, April.

L
UCIENNE
S. B
LOCH

The Machine and I,
Southwest Review
, vol. 98, no. 2.

A
MY
B
OESKY

The Ghost Writes Back,
KROnline
, January 16.

M
ARC
B
OOKMAN

The Confessions of Innocent Men,
The Atlantic
, August.

M
ARIANNE
B
ORUCH

Boredom,
Yale Review
, January.

J
AMES
B
RAZIEL

The Ballad of JD,
Southern Humanities Review
, Fall.

K
EVIN
B
ROCKMEIER

Dead Last Is a Kind of Second Place,
Georgia Review,
Winter.

C
ATHARINE
S
AVAGE
B
ROSMAN

Islands of Our Years,
Sewanee Review
, Fall.

G
ARRETT
J. B
ROWN

Galileo in the Uecker Seats: Reflections on Failed Observations,
Black Warrior Review
, Spring/Summer.

L
AURA
L
YNN
B
ROWN

Fifty Things About My Mother,
Iowa Review
, Winter.

W
ILLIAM
B
ROYLES

My Son and the Bear,
Outside
, June.

E
RICK
B
RUCKER

How to Get Home in Arequipa,
Jelly Bucket
, no. 4.

R
OBERT
S. B
RUNK

A Samuel Beckett Song,
Michigan Quarterly Review
, Fall.

F
RANK
B
URES

The Secret Lives of Stories,
Poets & Writers,
January/February.

K
ATIE
B
URGESS

Rahab's Thread,
Pembroke Magazine
, no. 45.

G
ABRIELLE
C. B
URTON

East of East,
Southern Indiana Review
, Fall.

K
ATY
B
UTLER

A Full Life to the End,
Wall Street Journal
, September 7–8.

 

B
ONNIE
J
O
C
AMPBELL

Crimes Against a Wrecker Driver,
Southern Review,
Spring.

M
ARY
C
APPELLO

My Secret, Private Errand (An Essay/Memoir on Love and Theft),
Salmagundi
, Fall.

R
ON
C
APPS

Writing My Way Home,
Delmarva Review
, October.

C
HARLES
C
ARAMELLO

Henry James Goes to War,
Denver Quarterly
, vol. 47, no. 4.

E
MILY
A
RNASON
C
ASEY

Laughing Water,
Upstreet
, no. 9.

M
AURICIO
C
ASTILLO

Do Not Brainstorm!,
American Journal of Neuroradiology
, July.

A
LICIA
C
ATT

On Saliva,
1966: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction
, vol. 1, no. 2.

M
ARY
A
NN
C
AWS

Thinking North,
Raritan
, Winter.

C
HRIS
C
HAN

It's Time We Demanded More,
Gilbert Magazine
, September–October.

K
ATHLEEN
C
HAPLIN

The Death Knock,
New England Review
, vol. 34, no. 1.

J
AMES
M. C
HESBRO

From the Rust and Sawdust,
Superstition Review
, Fall.

J
OSEPH
C
HINNOCK

Legally Ted,
Gettysburg Review
, Spring.

J
ILL
C
HRISTMAN

Borrowed Babies,
Iron
Horse
, vol. 15, no. 3.

K
ELLY
C
LANCY

Who Are Not, but Could Be,
Massachusetts Review
, Summer.

B
RUCE
C
OHEN