Read The Best American Essays 2013 Online
Authors: Robert Atwan
V
ANESSA
V
ESELKA
is the author of the novel
Zazen
, which won the 2012 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for fiction. Her short stories have appeared in
Tin House
and
ZYZZYVA
, and her nonfiction is found in
GQ
, the
Atlantic
, the
American Reader
, and
Salon.com
. She has also been, at times, a teenage runaway, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother.
M
ATTHEW
V
OLLMER
is the author of
Future Missionaries of America
, a collection of stories, and
Inscriptions for Headstones
, a collection of essays, each crafted as an epitaph and each unfolding in a single sentence. With David Shields, he is coeditor of
Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts
. His work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including the
Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Ecotone, New England Review, elimae, DIAGRAM
, the
Normal School
, the
Carolina Quarterly, Oxford American
, and the
Sun
. A recent winner of an NEA fellowship, he is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech, where he directs the undergraduate creative writing program.
Although she is “originally from” Shanghai, V
ICKI
W
EIQI
Y
ANG
currently resides in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where she studies political science at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include structures of governance, political theory, and security in East Asia. She has yet to muster the mettle required to call herself a writer, so she prefers the term
student
.
M
AKO
Y
OSHIKAWA
is currently at work on a memoir about her father. She is the author of the novels
One Hundred and One Ways
and
Once Removed
. Her work has been translated into six languages; awards for her writing include a Radcliffe Fellowship. As a literary critic she has published articles that explore the relationship between incest and race in twentieth-century American fiction. Her essays have appeared in the
Missouri Review
and the
Southern Indiana Review
. She is a professor of creative writing at Emerson College, Boston.
S
ELECTED BY
R
OBERT
A
TWAN
A
NWAR
F. A
CCAWI
The Camel,
The Sun
, October.
J
OAN
A
COCELLA
Once upon a Time,
The New Yorker
, July 23.
J
UDITH
A
DKINS
The Tree, the Forest,
Colorado Review
, Fall/Winter.
J
ERRY
A
DLER
Raging Bulls,
Wired
, September.
J
ASON
A
LBERT
Down and Out in a Repurposed Troop Carrier,
Morning News
, August 27.
P
AMELA
A
LEXANDER
Brush of Wildness,
Cimarron Review
, Fall.
S
UE
A
LLISON
What I Did Without You,
Crazyhorse
, Spring.
H
ILTON
A
LS
I Am Your Conscious, I Am Love,
Harper’s Magazine
, December.
A
IMEE
A
NDERSON
Indian Springs,
Gargoyle
, no. 58.
D
ONALD
A
NDERSON
Gathering Noise,
Epoch
, vol. 61, no. 2.
I
SAAC
A
NDERSON
Lord God Bird,
Image
, no. 72.
A
NONYMOUS
The Facts of the Matter,
TriQuarterly
, October 22.
D
AVID
A
NTIN
White Ravens Black Helicopters,
Southern Review
, Spring.
J
ACOB
M. A
PPEL
Livery,
Southeast Review
, vol. 30, no. 1.
E
LIZABETH
A
RNOLD
Crossing the Divide,
Gettysburg Review
, Autumn.
A
LAN
A
RRIVEE
The Appropriate Use of Hands,
Florida Review
, Summer.
C
HRIS
A
RTHUR
Looking Behind “Nothing’s” Door,
Hotel Amerika
, Spring.
O
LUMAYOWA
A
TTE
Road to Ibadan,
New Letters
, vol. 79, no. 1.
T
IMOTHY
A
UBRY
Sizing Up Oprah,
The Point
, Spring.
L
AURA
J
EAN
B
AKER
Year of the Tiger,
War, Literature, and the Arts
, no. 24.
R
OSECRANS
B
ALDWIN
Our French Connection,
Morning News
, May 29.
R
ICK
B
AROT
Morandi Sonnet,
ZYZZYVA
, Winter.
J
OHN
B
ARTH
The End?,
Granta
, Winter.
R
ICK
B
ASS
The Larch: A Love Story,
Orion
, September/October.
E
LISSA
B
ASSIST
The Never-to-Be Bride,
New York Times
, Sunday, April 29.
C
HARLES
B
AXTER
Undoings: An Essay in Three Parts,
Colorado Review
, Spring.
C
RIS
B
EAM
Mother, Stranger,
Atavist
, January.
M
ARK
B
EAVER
Taxidermy,
Third Coast
, Fall.
L
OUIS
B
EGLEY
My Europe,
New York Review of Books
, April 5.
T
HOMAS
B
ELLER
The Fun of Bad Business,
Oxford American
, no. 77.
G
EOFFREY
B
ENT
The Virtuoso,
Boulevard
, Fall.
M
ISCHA
B
ERLINSKI
A Farewell to Haiti,
New York Review of Books
, March 22.
F
LYNN
B
ERRY
Surfing,
Los Angeles Review
, Fall.
S
ASKIA
B
EUDEL
Ground Glass,
Iowa Review
, Spring.
J
ILL
B
IALOSKY
How to Say Good-Bye,
Real Simple
, February.
S
VEN
B
IRKERTS
It Wants to Find You,
Agni
, no. 76.
A
LTHEA
B
LACK
Essay to be Read at 3
A.M.
,
Narrative
.
K
ATHLEEN
B
LACKBURN
Where Now Is,
River Teeth
, Fall.
J
UDY
B
LUNT
Occupying the Real West,
New Letters
, vol. 78, nos. 3 & 4.
B
ELLE
B
OGGS
The Art of Waiting,
Orion
, March/April.
J
OE
B
ONOMO
Live Nude Essay!
Gulf Coast
, Winter/Spring.
R
OBERT
B
OYERS
My “Others,”
Yale Review
, January.
N
ATHANIEL
B
RODIE
Sparks,
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring.
S
TEVEN
M
ATTHEW
B
ROWN
Rest Stop Apologia,
Black Warrior Review
, Spring/Summer.
L
INDA
B
UCKMASTER
Becoming Memory,
Upstreet
, no. 8.
R
ACHEL
I
DA
B
UFF
All the Strange Hours: A Taxonomy,
Southern Review
, Winter.
F
RANK
B
URES
The Fall of the Creative Class,
Thirty Two
, July/August.
T
RACY
B
URKHOLDER
Proof,
Cincinnati Review
, Summer.
C
ARAND
B
URNET
Axis,
Gulf Coast
, Summer/Fall.
F
RANKLIN
B
URROUGHS
For What Blood Was Worth,
Sewanee Review
, Summer.
S
TEPHEN
B
URT
On Growing Up Between Genders,
New Haven Review
, Summer.
S
AM
B
UTLER
Elvis Presley Has Been Avenged,
Gettysburg Review
, Winter.
P
ETER
B
YRNE
Cliché Bound in Naples,
Able Muse
, Summer.
B
ILL
C
APOSSERE
Strange Travelers,
Colorado Review
, Fall/Winter.
A
NNE
C
ARSON
We Point the Bone,
Tin House
, no. 52.
O
SCAR
C
ÁSARES
My Name Is Cásares,
Texas Monthly
, November.
M
AUD
C
ASEY
A Stubborn Desire,
A Public Space
, no. 15.
F
RANK
C
ASSESE
It Doesn’t Mean We’re Wasting Our Time,
Guernica
, November 1.
M
AURICIO
C
ASTILLO
MD, ☺,
American Journal of Neuroradiology
, September.
L
ESLIE
C
ATON
Do You Really Want a Bird?,
Wapsipinicon Almanac
, no. 19.
J
ANE
C
AWTHORNE
Something as Big as a Mountain,
Prism
, Spring.
M
ELISSA
C
HADBURN
The Throwaways,
The Rumpus
, January 25.
M
AY
-L
EE
C
HAI
The Blue Boot,
Missouri Review
, Summer.
S
TEVEN
C
HURCH
Fight, Bull,
Prairie Schooner
, Winter.
A
NDREW
D. C
OHEN
Searching for Benny Paret,
Normal School
, Spring.
P
AULA
M
ARANTZ
Cohen
The Meanings of Forgery,
Southwest Review
, vol. 97, no. 1.
R
ACHEL
C
OHEN
Gold, Golden, Gilded, Glittering,
The Believer
, November/December.
R
ICH
C
OHEN
Pirate City,
Paris Review
, Summer.
B
ARBARA
F
LUG
C
OLIN
Now Let’s Stare at the Purple,
Teachers & Writers Magazine
, Winter.
W
ILHEMINA
C
ONDON
Walnut and Vine,
North Dakota Quarterly
, vol. 77, no. 4.
E
LI
C
ONNAUGHTON
Burial,
Alligator Juniper
, 2012.
R
EBECCA
C
OOK
Flame,
Southeast Review
, vol. 30, no. 1.
M
ARTHA
C
OOLEY
Go Tell Your Father,
Agni
, no. 76.