The Best American Essays 2016 (52 page)

Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2015

S
ELECTED BY
R
OBERT
A
TWAN

R
AYMOND
A
BBOTT

Seymour Krim,
Oyez Review
, Spring

S
UFIYA
A
BDUR-
R
AHMAN

Surrender at the Cinema,
Ummah Wide
, February 15

H
ANNAH
D
ELA
C
RUZ
A
BRAMS

Dog and Wolf: The Time Between,
Southern Humanities Review
, vol. 48, no. 3

S
TEVE
A
DAMS

Border Crossing,
Grist
, no. 8

T
AMARA
A
DELMAN

Rustic Canyon,
Rubbertop Review
, no. 7

M
ARCIA
A
LDRICH

The Blue Dress,
Hotel Amerika
, Winter

T
ARIQ AL
H
AYDAR

Machine Language,
Crab Orchard Review
, Summer/Fall

C
YNTHIA
A
LLEN

When the Walls Came Down,
So to Speak
, Fall

L
AUREN
A
LWAN

Eldorado,
ZYZZYVA
, Winter

Z
AY
A
MSBURY

Immersive Theater, New York: A Report from the Field,
The Labletter
, no. 17

K
ATE
A
NGUS

My Catalog of Failures,
The Southeast Review
, vol. 33, no. 1

K
WAME
A
NTHONY
A
PPIAH

Race in the Modern World,
Foreign Affairs
, March/April

A
ARON
A
PPS

The Formation of This Grotesque Fatty Figure,
Passages North
, no. 36

A
MYE
A
RCHER

Slow Motion,
PMS
, no. 14

C
HRIS
A
RTHUR

Memory Sticks,
The Literary Review
, Spring

Glass,
Tahoma Literary Review
, vol. 2, no. 2

R
ILLA
A
SKEW

Trail,
This Land
, Spring

H
OWARD
A
XELROD

Into the Blind Spot,
The Virginia Quarterly Review
, Winter

M
ATTHEW
J
AMES
B
ABCOCK

Boogaloo Too,
Small Print Magazine
, Spring/Summer

C
.
M
ORGAN
B
ABST

Death Is a Way to Be,
Guernica
, June 15

J
ULIANNA
B
AGGOTT

A Portrait of My Father Mapping a Plane Crash,
The Cincinnati Review
, Summer

R
ONALD
B
AILEY

Eternal Youth for All,
Reason
, March

S
ARAH
E
.
B
AKER

Every Western Is a Ghost Story,
Ninth Letter
, Spring/Summer

P
OE
B
ALLANTINE

No Talking to Imaginary People,
The Sun
, October

R
USSELL
B
ANKS

Last Days Feeding Frenzy,
Conjunctions
, no. 64

B
ARRET
B
AUMGART

The Mountain,
The Gettysburg Review
, Autumn

E
LIZABETH
B
ENEDICT

What We Talk About When We Talk About Money,
Salmagundi
, Winter/Spring

G
EOFFREY
B
ENT

John Singer Sargent: The Great Good Painter,
Boulevard
, Fall

S
TEPHEN
B
ENZ

A Grave on the High Plain,
River Teeth
, Fall

L
AUREL
B
ERGER

The Magic of Untidiness,
The Point
, September 23

E
MILY
B
ERNARD

Black Is the Body,
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring

S
VEN
B
IRKERTS

Double Take,
Agni
, no. 82

E
ULA
B
ISS

White Debt,
The New York Times Magazine
, December 6

M
ARY
C
LEARMAN
B
LEW

What My Hands Know,
The Gettysburg Review
, Summer

P
AUL
B
LOOM

The Lure of Luxury,
Boston Review
, November/December

W
ILL
B
LYTHE

Five Encounters with Vegetation,
Oxford American
, Summer

K
EN
B
ODE

Settling Scores: Revenge Louisiana Style,
The Antioch Review
, Winter

K
YLE
B
OELTE

Reluctant Citizens: A Juror’s Education,
ZYZZYVA
, Spring/Summer

B
ELLE
B
OGGS

Baby Fever,
Orion
, November/December

L
ESLIE
B
OHEM

What Everybody Wants,
Parcel
, Summer

B
ENEDICTE
B
OISSERON

Afro-Dog,
Transition
, no. 118

M
ARC
B
OOKMAN

“That’s What That N—— Deserved,” Mother Jones, March 24

K
ATIE
B
OOTH

The Sign for This,
Vela
, June 29

R
OBERT
B
OUCHERON

Redbud Lane,
MAKE
, no. 16

N
INA
B
OUTSIKARIS

I’m Trying to Tell You I’m Sorry,
Redivider
, vol. 13, no. 1

C
HANDRA
A
.
B
OZELKO

The Right to Read,
Quartz
, August 13

M
ICHELLE
B
RACKEN

Eating Together,
Baltimore Review
, Winter

D
IANE
B
RACUK

Doughnut Eaters,
Prism
, Spring

G
AYLE
B
RANDEIS

IceTown,
Sport Literate
, vol. 9, no. 1

M
ICHAEL
B
RANDOW

Don’t Buy This Dog,
The Village Voice
, December 9–15

A
NNE
B
RANNEN

Agents of Death,
Creative Nonfiction
, Fall

B
LAIR
B
RAVERMAN

Welcome to Dog World!
The Atavist Magazine
, June

M
OLLY
B
RODAK

Bandit,
Granta
, no. 132

T
AFFY
B
RODESSER-
A
KNER

Turbulent Calm,
Good
, Spring

M
IKE
B
ROIDA

Odysseus at Teleyplos,
The Rumpus
, November 18

V
ICTOR
B
ROMBERT

Between Two Worlds,
The Hudson Review
, Autumn

N
ICK
B
ROMELL

Dignity: A Word for Democracy,
Raritan
, Summer

D
AVID
B
ROMWICH

Trapped in the Virtual Classroom,
The New York Review of Books
, July 9

V
ICTORIA
B
ROWN

Nice Girl and Small Man,
Apogee
, no. 6

R
OBERT
S
.
B
RUNK

We Shall All Be Forgotten,
North Dakota Quarterly
, vol. 80, no. 3

L
UCY
B
RYAN

In Between Places,
Quarterly West
, October 29

C
HRISTOPHER
B
UCKLEY

The Ontology of Hermeneutics,
Catamaran
, Spring

F
RANK
B
URES

Beyond Belief,
The Rotarian
, August

R
OSE
B
URKE

Thirteen Stages of Grief,
The Southampton Review
, Summer/Fall

A
MY
B
UTCHER

A Slow Kind of Unraveling,
Gulf Coast
, Winter/Spring

D
AVID
B
YRNE

A Matter of the Skies,
Boston Review
, January/February

M
ICHELLE
C
ACHO-
N
EGRETE

First Husband,
North American Review
, Summer

G
ARNETTE
C
ADOGAN

Black and Blue,
Freeman’s
, no. 1

P
ABLO
C
ALVI

Secret Reserves,
The Believer
, Fall

S
HANNON
M
ICHAEL
C
ANE

Xerox, Paper, Scissors,
Aperture
, Spring

K
ELLY
G
REY
C
ARLISLE

Permutations of X,
New England Review
, vol. 35, no. 4

T
OM
C
ARSON

Clans of the Cathode,
The Baffler
, no. 29

L
IANE
K
UPPERBERG
C
ARTER

A Room of My Own,
Manifest-Station
, October 28

D
OUG
P
AUL
C
ASE

On Locker Rooms and Looking,
December
, Spring/Summer

C
HRISTOPHER
C
HAMBERS

Amplifier,
The Southern Review
, Summer

J
’
L
YN
C
HAPMAN

The Good Beast,
Denver Quarterly
, vol. 49, no. 3

W
YNN
C
HAPMAN

The War of the Ashes,
Blackbird
, Fall

J
ULIE
C
HINITZ

Sleepless Nights with Khaled El-Masri,
Confrontation
, Fall

R
OOHI
C
HOUDHRY

On Island,
The Butter
, March 2

J
ILL
C
HRISTMAN

Going Back to Plum Island,
River Teeth
, Fall

A
MY
C
LARK

The Rocks,
The Chattahoochee Review
, Spring

S
USANNAH
C
LARK

Signs (2002),
Under the Gum Tree
, April

T
A-
N
EHISI
C
OATES

Letter to My Son,
The Atlantic
, September

A
LEXIS
C
OE

Dispatches from the Russian River: Locked and Loaded,
Pacific Standard
, May 1

J
UDITH
O
RTIZ
C
OFER

Display Only,
Hotel Amerika
, Winter

A
NDREW
D
.
C
OHEN

To the Old Country,
Michigan Quarterly Review
, Winter

H
ELEN
D
EGEN
C
OHEN

The Sin of Choreography,
West Branch
, Winter

P
AULA
M
ARANTZ
C
OHEN

On Granite Countertops and Wolf Ovens,
The Southwest Review
, vol. 100, no. 1