The Best American Essays 2024

Edited and with an Introduction by Wesley Morris
Kim Dana Kupperman, Series Editor

"Imparting some piece of yourself—any part—is arduous and warrants some kind of commendation," writes guest editor Wesley Morris in his introduction. Both personal and personable, the essayists in this volume use their own vulnerability to guide readers on excursions that unfold on uncomfortable edges. From contemplating the nuances of memory to exploring the complexities of family, romance, gender identity, illness, and death, Morris' selection of essays presents a roundup of the thinkers who masterfully grapple with the issue of our time.

Copyright © 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
Introduction copyright © 2024 by Wesley Morris.

ISSN 0888-3742
ISBN 978-0-06-335155-4

Buy The Best American Essays 2024 on Amazon

---

Contents

Foreword    ix

Introduction    xiii

JENISHA WATTS.    Jenisha from Kentucky    1
        from The Atlantic

TEJU COLE.    Reframing Vermeer    27
        from New York Times Magazine

SALLIE TISDALE.    Mere Belief    35
        from Harper's Magazine

JENNIFER SINOR.    The Lives of Bryan    50
        from The American Scholar

JERALD WALKER.    It's Hard Out Here for a Memoirist    63
        from Prairie Schooner

JONATHAN GLEASON.    Proxemics    71
        from Colorado Review

BROCK CLARKE.    Woodstove    83
        from Five Points

MICHAEL W. CLUNE.    The Anatomy of Panic    99
        from Harper's Magazine

COURTNEY MILLER SANTO.    If/Then    119
        from New Letters

JENNIFER SENIOR.    The Ones We Sent Away    133
        from The Atlantic

YIYUN LI.    If Not Now, Later    167
        from The New Yorker

AMY MARGOLIS.    1978    179
        from The Iowa Review

NICOLE GRAEV LIPSON.    As They Like It: Learning to Follow My Child's Lead    189
        from Virginia Quarterly Review

KATHLEEN ALCOTT.    Trapdoor    207
        from Harper's Magazine

JAMES WHORTON JR.    An Upset Place    226
        from The Gettysburg Review

JAMES MCAULEY.    Memory's Cellar    245
        from Liberties

RICHARD PRINS.    Because: An Etiology    264
        from Potomac Review

AUSTIN WOERNER.    As Big as You Make It Out to Be    274
        from Ploughshares

RÉMY NGAMIJE.    Love Is a Washing Line    302
        from Prairie Schooner

ANNE MARIE TODKILL.    Storm Damage    311
        from The Fiddlehead

ED PAVILIĆ.    Anita Baker Introduced Us and Patrice Rushen Did the Rest    325
        from Oxford American

CHRISTIENNE L. HINZ.    A Rewilding    337
        from Terrain

Contributors' Notes    347

Notable Essays of 2023    352