The Best American Essays 2022

by Alexander Chee, Robert Atwan

Overview

A collection of the year’s best essays, selected by award-winning writer Alexander Chee.

Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358658870
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Series:	Best American Series
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

ALEXANDER CHEE is the author of the novels Edinburgh, for which he won a Whiting Award, and Queen of the Night, which was a national bestseller. His essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel was named a best book of the year by New York Magazine, the Washington Post, Publisher's Weekly, NPR, and Time. In 2025 Kirkus Reviews named it one of the hundred best books of nonfiction of the 21st century. Chee is a recipient of the NEA Fellowship in Fiction and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Ledig House, and Civitella Ranieri. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, and NPR, among other publications, and he is a Contributing Editor at The New Republic. He lives in New York City.

ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xix

Abasement Brian Blanchfield 1

From Territory

Drinking Story Elissa Washuta 5

From Harper's Bazaar

Fire and Ice Debra Gwartney 10

From Granta

Ghosts Vauhini Vara 21

From The Believer

The Wild, Sublime Body Melissa Febos 35

From The Yale Review

So. Baby Yeah Anthony Veasna 43

From n+i

The Gye, the No-Name Hair Salon, the Coup d'État, and the Small Dreamers Jung Hae Chae 57

From New England Review

It Had to Be Gold Justin Torres 71

From Los Angeles Times Image

Futurity Alex Marzano-Lesnevich 79

From Harvard Review

Her Kind Naomi Jackson 92

From Harper's Magazine

Ghost Bread Angelique Stevens 105

From Prism

The Gamble Lina Mounzer 116

From Freeman's

The Wrong Jason Brown Jason Brown 131

From The New Yorker

Between These Lives, Azeroth Tanner Akoni Laguatan 145

From Wired

Among Men Calvin Gimpelevich 152

From Ploughshares

China Brain Andrea Long Chu 165

From n+i

What She Would Always and Should Always Be Doing Kaitlyn Greenidge 182

From BuzzFeed

My Gentile Region Gary Shteyngart 190

From The New Yorker

Anatomy of a Botched Assimilation Jesus Quintero 208

From Your Impossible Voice

Mother Country Elias Rodriques 231

From Virginia Quarterly Review

At the Bend of the Road Aube Rey Lescure 245

From Guernica

If You Ever Find Yourself Erika J. Simpson 257

From The Audacity

The Lost List Ryan Bradley 270

From The Sewanee Purview

Contributors' Notes 286

Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2021 291

Notable Special Issues of 2021 304

Editorial Reviews

New Yorker writer Schulz (Being Wrong) collects essays that skillfully combine journalistic and literary sensibilities in this powerful addition to the annual anthology series… This is a moving retrospective of a singular year.” — Publishers Weekly on The Best American Essays 2021

“These essays challenge personal and political assumptions and show us life in all its complexities and contradictions. Which in this American moment, and in every other, matters.” — USA Today

“[A] thoughtful entry in the long-running series...The works in this year’s collection are a mix of the disconcerting, the probing, and the self-reflective, and well-suited to challenging times.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

These essays challenge personal and political assumptions and show us life in all its complexities and contradictions. Which in this American moment, and in every other, matters.

USA Today

These essays challenge personal and political assumptions and show us life in all its complexities and contradictions. Which in this American moment, and in every other, matters.

USA Today

[A] thoughtful entry in the long-running series…The works in this year’s collection are a mix of the disconcerting, the probing, and the self-reflective, and well-suited to challenging times.”

Publishers Weekly