The Best American Essays 2016 (56 page)

You Have Me,
December
, Fall/Winter

M
ICHAEL
P
ATERNITI

The Accident,
GQ
, March

J
ENNY
P
ATTON

A Different Direction,
Kaleidoscope
, Winter/Spring

H
ILARY
P
EACH

The Wolf,
Event
, vol. 44, no. 3

B
RADFORD
P
EARSON

My Kidnappers,
Philadelphia Magazine
, September

D
ALE
P
ECK

Voyeur,
The Threepenny Review
, Spring

A
DRIENNE
P
ERRY

A Dark and Simple Place,
Indiana Review
, Winter

K
IKI
P
ETROSINO

Literacy Narrative,
The Iowa Review
, vol. 45, no. 3

M
.
N
OURBESE
P
HILIP

Drowning Not Waving,
Room
, vol. 38, no. 4

A
DAM
P
HILLIPS

Edward Lear’s Nonsense and British Psychoanalysis,
Raritan
, Fall

D
EESHA
P
HILYAW

How Can You Be Mad at Someone Who’s Dying of Cancer?
Full Grown People
, February 17

E
RIC
M
.
P
OESCHLA

Hemingway’s Last Letter,
The Southwest Review
, 100, no. 1

D
AVID
J
AMES
P
OISSANT

On the Disney Cruise,
Burrow Press Review
, July 21

B
ELLA
P
OLLEN

Possession,
Granta
, no. 132

L
IZA
P
ORTER

How to Survive the Dinner Table,
Chautauqua
, no. 12

S
USAN
P
OWER

Breaking Stereotypes,
Yellow Medicine Review
, Fall

T
HOMAS
H
.
P
RUIKSMA

First Loves,
Ploughshares
, Summer

S
HELLY
P
UHAK

Five Bathrooms and an Outhouse,
Creative Nonfiction
, Winter

L
IA
P
URPURA

My Eagles,
Orion
, March/April

C
LAUDIA
R
ANKINE

Her Excellence,
The New York Times Magazine
, August 30

W
ENDY
R
AWLINGS

A Singular Apparatus,
The Florida Review
, vol. 39, nos. 1 and 2

R
OBERT
R
EBEIN

Bullet in the Brain,
Yemassee
, Spring

P
AUL
R
EIFERSON

He Wears the Mask,
The Southwest Review
, vol. 100, no. 3

S
UE
R
EPKO

Detours,
Literal Latte
, Spring

R
OBIN
R
INALDI

Love in a Time of Plethora,
San Francisco
, February

J
IM
R
INGLEY

What You Don’t Know for Certain,
The Sun
, March

K
RISTINA
K
AY
R
OBINSON

Ten Years Since: A Meditation on New Orleans,
The Nation
, August 31 and September 7

M
ARILYN
R
OBINSON

Humanism,
The Nation
, November 9

W
ALTER
M
.
R
OBINSON

White Cloth Ribbons,
Harvard Review
, no. 48

J
OHN
G
.
R
ODWAN
J
R.

Pedal Power to the People,
The American Interest
, May/June

A
NTONIA
R
OMANI

She’ll Make Herself Alive,
A Public Space
, no. 23

L
ISA
R
OMEO

Not Quite Meet-Cute,
Blue Lyra Review
, Spring

L
EE
A
NN
R
ORIPAUGH

Swarm,
South Dakota Review
, vol. 52, no. 1

M
AXINE
R
OSALER

The Lost Boy,
Fifth Wednesday
, Spring

P
HYLLIS
R
OSE

My Mother’s Yiddish,
The American Scholar
, Summer

J
EREMY
R
OSEN

An Insatiable Market for Minor Characters: Genre in the Contemporary Literary Marketplace,
New Literary History
, Winter

J
IM
R
OSS

Slow to Learn,
Ray’s Road Review
, Winter

T
HEODORE
R
OSS

How to Beat a Polygraph Test,
Vice
, April

A
LLIE
R
OWBOTTOM

Ghosts and Houses,
The Florida Review
, vol. 39, nos. 1 and 2

L
ISA
R
UDDICK

When Nothing Is Cool,
The Point
, December 7

H
EATHER
R
YAN

En Passant,
The Los Angeles Review
, Spring

K
ENDELL
N
EWMAN
S
ADIIK

The Man Behind Him,
Jabberwock Review
, Winter

M
ATT
S
AILOR

Great Moments in Cinematic Drinking:
Jaws
,
Hobart
, October 2

M
ARK
S
ANDERS

Homecoming Parade,
Permafrost
, Winter

S
COTT
R
USSELL
S
ANDERS

Writing While the World Burns,
The Georgia Review
, Spring

E
VA
S
AULITIS

Man of Letters: An Elegy,
Alaska Quarterly Review
, Fall/Winter

R
ICHARD
S
CHMITT

States of Mind,
The Chattahoochee Review
, Fall/Winter

D
AVID
S
CHNEIDER

Scalpel,
This Land
, Summer

C
ANDY
S
CHULMAN

Je Suis a Mother in an Age of Terror,
Washington Post
, January 21

K
ATHRYN
S
CHULZ

Pond Scum,
The New Yorker
, October 19

E
BEN
S
.
S
CHWARTZ

The Art of Medicine: Metaphors and Medically Unexplained Symptoms,
The Lancet
, August 22

M
IMI
S
CHWARTZ

The Coronation of Bobby,
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring

W
AYNE
S
COTT

Summer Without End,
The Millions
, January 22

D
ANIELLE
P
ETERSEN
S
EARLS

Crusader Chic,
Lapham’s Quarterly
, Fall

H
EATHER
S
ELLERS

I’ll Never Bother You Again,
The Sun
, February

L
YNDA
S
EXSON

Rock, Paper, Scissors,
Image
, no. 85

S
TEVEN
S
HAPIN

The Desire to Know,
Boston Review
, January/February

S
USAN
S
HAPIRO

What My Father Gave Me,
Yahoo
, June 19

A
URVI
S
HARMA

Eleven Stories of Water and Stone,
Prairie Schooner
, Spring

K
ENNETH
S
HERMAN

Living Susan Sontag’s
Illness as Metaphor
,
Brick
, no. 95

S
ERENA
S
HIPP

Fishing,
Room
, vol. 38, no. 4

T
OM
S
HRODER

Seoul Mates,
The Washington Post Magazine
, September 13

R
ANBIR
S
INGH
S
IDHU

The Indian Wedding That Exploded in Violence,
Salon
, January 1

G
EMMA
S
IEFF

Gone in 60 Seconds,
Vice
, January

R
OBERT
A
NTHONY
S
IEGEL

Criminals,
Paris Review
, Fall

S
HERRY
S
IMON

The Translational Life of Cities,
The Massachusetts Review
, Fall

S
TEVEN
S
IMONCIC

I Like You,
Under the Gum Tree
, January

P
ETER
S
INGER

The Logic of Effective Altruism,
Boston Review
, July/August

D
AVID
S
KINNER

Edmund Wilson’s Big Idea,
Humanities
, September/October

J
OHN
S
KOYLES

Johnny London,
Five Points
, vol. 17, no. 1

L
AUREN
S
LATER

Bloodlines,
The Sun
, March

A
ISHA
S
ABATINI
S
LOAN

D Is for the Dance of the Hours,
Ecotone
, Fall

S
ARAH
S
MARSH

The First Person on Mars,
Vela
, October 20

J
USTIN
E
.
H
.
S
MITH

The Joke,
Harper’s Magazine
, April

M
IKE
S
MITH

My Magpie Mind,
December
, Fall/Winter

P
HILLIP
A
.
S
NYDER

Rental Horses,
Sport Literate
, vol. 9, no. 2

R
EBECCA
S
OLNIT

Abolish High School,
Harper’s Magazine
, April

T
AMIE
P
ARKER
S
ONG

Manhandled,
New Ohio Review
, Fall

A
NA
M
ARIA
S
PAGNA

Hope Without Hope,
Ecotone
, Spring

D
EBRA
S
PARK

The Dangerous Act of Writing,
Agni
, no. 81

M
ATTHEW
S
PENDER

Worldly Failure,
The Yale Review
, October

M
AIREAD
S
MALL
S
TAID

Mad Pieces,
The Georgia Review
, Fall

E
RIN
S
TALCUP

The Art of Teaching,
stirjournal.com
, June 15

M
.
D
.
S
TEIN

Acting Like a Doctor,
The Southwest Review
, vol. 100, no. 3

M
ICHAEL
S
TEINBERG

Living in Michigan, Dreaming Manhattan,
Great Lakes Review
, Summer/Fall

S
USAN
S
TRAIGHT

The River in Me,
Orion
, January/February

G
INGER
S
TRAND

Vonnegut on the Road,
Tin House
, no. 65

E
MILY
S
TRASSER

Homeplace,
Ploughshares
, Winter