The Best American Essays 2021

Edited and with an Introduction by Kathryn Schulz
Robert Atwan, Series Editor

"THE WORLD IS ABUNDANT EVEN IN BAD TIMES," guest editor Kathryn Schulz writes in her introduction. "It is lush with interestingness, and always, somewhere, offering up consolation or beauty or humor or happiness, or at least the hope of future happiness." The essays Schulz selected are a powerful time capsule of 2020, showcasing that even if our lives as we knew them stopped, the beauty to be found in them flourished. From an intimate account of nursing a loved one in the early days of the pandemic, to a masterful portrait of grieving the loss of a husband as the country grieved the loss of George Floyd, this collection brilliantly captures the grief, hardship, and hope of a singular year.

Copyright © 2021 by HarperCollins Publishers LLC
Introduction copyright © 2021 by Kathryn Schulz

ISBN 978-0-358-38175-4 (print)
ISBN 978-0-358-38122-8 (e-book)

Buy The Best American Essays 2021 on Amazon

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Contents

Foreword   ix

Introduction   xxi

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER   The Trayvon Generation   1
       from The New Yorker

HILTON ALS   Homecoming   9
       from The New Yorker

MOLLY McCULLY BROWN   The Broken Country   22
       from Virginia Quarterly Review

AGNES CALLARD   Acceptance Parenting   30
       from The Point

GABRIELLE HAMILTON   The Kitchen Is Closed   37
       from The New York Times Magazine

TONY HOAGLAND   Bent Arrows: On Anticipation of My Approaching Disappearance   52
       from Ploughshares

GREG JACKSON   Vicious Cycles   55
       from Harper's Magazine

RUCHIR JOSHI   Clarity   73
       from Granta

AMY LEACH   Oh Latitudo   80
       from Granta

PATRICIA LOCKWOOD   Insane After Coronavirus?   84
       from London Review of Books

BARRY LOPEZ   Love in a Time of Terror   92
       from Literary Hub

JESSICA LUSTIG   What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick with Coronavirus   101
       from The New York Times Magazine

DAWN LUNDY MARTIN   What Money Can't Buy   109
       from Ploughshares

CLAIRE MESSUD   Two Women   121
       from A Public Space

WESLEY MORRIS   My Mustache   136
       from The New York Times Magazine

BETH NGUYEN   Apparent   150
       from The Paris Review

FINTAN O'TOOLE   The Designated Mourner   164
       from The New York Review of Books

MAX READ   Going Postal   175
       from Bookforum

DARIEL SUAREZ   In Orbit   182
       from The Threepenny Review

JESMYN WARD   Witness and Respair   192
       from Granta

Contributors' Notes   201

Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2020   206

Notable Special Issues of 2020   220