Some of The Best American Essays 2014

January 4, 2015 10:24 PM

The Best American Essays of 2014 Many of the essays are behind paywalls, or subject to monthly article limits. I've linked to those as well because some of you have access through work, school, or subscription.

TIMOTHY AUBRY A Matter of Life and Death

WENDY BRENNER Strange Beads

JOHN H. CULVER The Final Day in Rome

EMILY FOX GORDON At Sixty-Five

LAWRENCE JACKSON Slickheads

LESLIE JAMISON The Devils Bait

ARIEL LEVY Thanksgiving in Mongolia

ELIZABETH TALLENT Little X

WELLS TOWER The Old Man at Burning Man

JAMES WOOD Becoming Them


Excerpts or Paywalls

BARON WORMSER Legend: Willem de Kooning [n/a]

KRISTIN DOMBEK Letter from Williamsburg

DAVE EGGERS The Man at the River

MARY GORDON On Enmity

VIVIAN GORNICK Letter from Greenwich Village

YIYUN LI Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life

BARRY LOPEZ Sliver of Sky

CHRIS OFFUTT Someone Else

ZADIE SMITH Joy

JERALD WALKER How to Make a Slave

PAUL WEST On Being Introduced

2010 edition

posted by craniac (6 comments total)

Aaarggh. After working on this for two hours I discoverd that "Slickheads" is also an excerpt.
posted by craniac at 10:27 PM on January 4, 2015

Excellent post.
posted by four panels at 12:14 AM on January 5, 2015

Thanks for all your hard work. I look forward to reading the ones I can access.

I wish I could stay up all night reading these but I had to stop after the first one due to it already being after midnight.
posted by cairnoflore at 12:18 AM on January 5, 2015

This is beautiful, thank you!
posted by spinturtle at 5:12 AM on January 5, 2015

Thanks for compiling this! I loved reading Brenner's "Strange Beads." The ebay offerings of Bergbay310 are just as charming and intriguing as described.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 11:55 AM on January 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's interesting to see how the online essay landscape has changed in the four years since I put one of these up. "Longform" is a thing, with a name, and is everywhere.
posted by craniac at 7:17 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]