The Best American Essays
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The Best American Essays
''The Best American Essays'' is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States.Robert Atwan (ed.), Adam Gopnick (guest ed.). ''The Best American Essays 2008'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. It was started in 1986 and is now part of The Best American Series published by HarperCollins.https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/bestamericanseries Articles are chosen using the same procedure with other titles in the Best American series; the series editor chooses about 100 article candidates, from which the guest editor picks 25 or so for publication; the remaining runner-up articles listed in the appendix. The series is edited by Robert Atwan, and Joyce Carol Oates assisted in the editing process until 2000 with the publication of ''The Best American Essays of the Century''. Guest editors * 1986: Elizabeth Hardwick * 1987: Gay Talese * 1988: Annie Dillard * 1989: Geoffrey Wolff * 1990: Justin Kaplan * 1991: Joyce Carol Oates * 1992: Susan Sontag * 1993: Joseph Ep ...
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The Best American Series
{{italic title ''The Best American Series'' is a series of anthologies that is published annually by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Each title within the series covers a specific genre such as short stories or mysteries. The works for each year's edition are selected from those published elsewhere during the previous year. ''The Best American Short Stories'' has been published since 1915, making it the oldest continuous series of its type. Starting in 1986, additional titles were added for essays, sports writing, nature writing and more, at which time the broader ''The Best American Series'' moniker was introduced. The series was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt prior to HarperCollins acquiring HMH Books & Media in 2021. Editing Each title has a continuing series editor who makes an initial selection of notable works from which a guest editor chooses those for inclusion in that year's edition. Guest editors are established authors in the title's associated genr ...
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Alan Lightman
Alan Paige Lightman is an American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently a Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lightman played a major role in establishing MIT's "Communication Requirement," which requires all undergraduates to have training in writing and speaking each of their four years. Lightman was one of the first people at MIT to have a joint faculty position in both the sciences and the humanities. In his thinking and writing, Lightman is known for exploring the intersection of the sciences and the humanities, especially the dialogue between science, philosophy, religion, and spirituality. He is the author of the international bestseller ''Einstein's Dreams''. ''Einstein's Dreams'' has been translated into more than 30 languages and adapted into dozens of independent theatrical and musica ...
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Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed (; née Nyland; born September 17, 1968) is an American writer and podcast host. She has written four books: the novel ''Torch'' (2006) and the nonfiction books '' Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail'' (2012), ''Tiny Beautiful Things'' (2012) and ''Brave Enough'' (2015). ''Wild'', which told the story of a long hike that Strayed took in 1995, was an international bestseller, and was adapted as the 2014 film ''Wild''. Early life Strayed was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, the second daughter of Barbara Anne "Bobbi" (née Young; 1945–1991) and Ronald Nyland. From age three to six, Strayed was sexually abused by her paternal grandfather. At age six, she moved with her family from Pennsylvania to Chaska, Minnesota. Her parents divorced soon after and Cheryl's father left her life. When Cheryl was 12 her mother married Glenn Lambrecht, and the following year the family moved to rural Aitkin County, where they lived in a house that they had built thems ...
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David Brooks (journalist)
David Brooks (born August 11, 1961) is a political and cultural commentator who writes for ''The New York Times''. He has worked as a film critic for ''The Washington Times'', a reporter and later op-ed editor for ''The Wall Street Journal'',Columnist Biography: David Brooks
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Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat (; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian-American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, '' Breath, Eyes, Memory'', was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or edited several books and has been the recipient of many awards and honors. Early life Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When she was twelve years old, her father André immigrated to New York, to be followed two years later by her mother Rose. This left Danticat and her younger brother, also named André, to be raised by her aunt and uncle. When asked in an interview about her traditions as a child, she included storytelling, church, and constantly studying school material as all part of growing up. Although her formal education in Haiti was in French, she spoke Haitian Creole at home. While still in Haiti, Danticat began writing at nine years of age. She later wrote another story about her immigration experience for ''New ...
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Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, Hitchens worked as a journalist with the ''New Statesman'' magazine in London in the 1970s after leaving Oxford. In the early 1980s he emigrated to the United States and wrote for ''The Nation'' and '' Vanity Fair''. Hitchens political views evolved greatly throughout his life. Originally describing himself as a democratic socialist, he was a member of various socialist organisations in his early life, including the International Socialists. Hitchens eventually no longer regarded himself as socialist, but continued to admire aspects of Marxism. He was critical of aspects of American foreign policy, including its involvement in Vietnam, Chile, and East Timor. However, he also supported the United States in the Kosovo War. After Hitchens di ...
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Mary Oliver
Mary Jane Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019) was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. It is characterised by a sincere wonderment at the impact of natural imagery, conveyed in unadorned language. In 2007, she was declared to be the country's best-selling poet. Early life Mary Oliver was born to Edward William and Helen M. (Vlasak) Oliver on September 10, 1935, in Maple Heights, Ohio, a semi-rural suburb of Cleveland. Her father was a social studies teacher and an athletics coach in the Cleveland public schools. As a child, she spent a great deal of time outside where she enjoyed going on walks or reading. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor in 1992, Oliver commented on growing up in Ohio, saying "It was pastoral, it was nice, it was an extended family. I don't know why I felt such an affi ...
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Adam Gopnik
Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He is the author of nine books, including '' Paris to the Moon'', ''Through the Children's Gate'', ''The King in the Window'', and '' A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism.'' In 2020, his essay "The Driver's Seat" was cited as the most-assigned piece of contemporary nonfiction in the English-language syllabus. Early life and education Gopnik was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia and raised in Montreal. His family lived at Habitat 67. Both his parents were professors at McGill University; father Irwin was a professor of English literature and mother Myrna was a professor of linguistics. During a storytelling session for The Moth in 2014, Gopnik explained that his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother fell in love with each other, le ...
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David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', which ''Time'' magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, '' The Pale King'' (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The ''Los Angeles Times''s David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended Amherst College. He taught English at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. In 2008, he died by suicide at age 46 after struggling with depression for many years. Early life and education David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, to Sally Jean Wallace (' Foster) and James Donald Wallace. The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illino ...
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Lauren Slater
Lauren Slater (born March 21, 1963) is an American psychotherapist and writer. She is the author of nine books, including ''Welcome To My Country'' (1996), ''Prozac Diary'' (1998), and ''Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir'' (2000). Her 2004 book '' Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century,'' a description of psychology experiments "narrated as stories,"Slater, Lauren. ''Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century'', Norton 2004, has drawn both praise and criticism. Criticism has focused on Slater's research methods and on the extent to which some of the experiences she describes may have been fictionalized. ''The Village Voice'' called her "the closest thing we have to a doyenne of psychiatric disorder." Education and career Slater graduated in 1985 from Brandeis University. Slater was a 2002–2003 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Slater and her partner Anna-Sylv ...
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Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of ''The Orchid Thief'' and '' The Library Book''. She has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1992, and has contributed articles to many magazines including ''Vogue'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', and '' Outside''. In 2021, Orlean joined the writing team of HBO comedy series ''How To with John Wilson''. She is best known as the author of the 1998 book ''The Orchid Thief'', which was adapted into the film ''Adaptation'' (2002). Meryl Streep received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Orlean. Early life Orlean was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the daughter of Edith (née Gross 1923–2016) and Arthur Orlean (1915–2007). She has a sister and a brother. Her family is Jewish. Her mother's family is from Hungary and her father's family from Poland. Her father was an attorney and businessman. Orlean graduated from the University of Michigan with honors i ...
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Louis Menand
Louis Menand (; born January 21, 1952) is an American critic, essayist, and professor, best known for his Pulitzer-winning book ''The Metaphysical Club'' (2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America. Life and career Menand was born in Syracuse, New York, and raised around Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Catherine (Shults) Menand, was a historian, who wrote a biography of Samuel Adams. His father, Louis Menand III, taught political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His grandfather and great-grandfather owned the Louis Menand House, located in Menands, New York, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The village of Menands is named after his great-grandfather, a 19th-century horticulturalist. A 1973 graduate of Pomona College, Menand attended Harvard Law School for one year (1973–1974) before he left to earn MA (1975) and PhD (1980) degrees in English from Columbia University. He th ...
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