A collection of the year’s best essays, selected by award-winning writer Alexander Chee.
Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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“[A] thoughtful entry in the long-running series…The works in this year’s collection are a mix of the disconcerting, the probing, and the self-reflective, and well-suited to challenging times.”
— Publishers Weekly
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Alexander Chee is the author of the novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh and the acclaimed essay collection How to Write An Autobiographical Novel. He is a contributing editor at the New Republic, an editor-at-large at Virginia Quarterly Review, and a critic-at-large at the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, the New York Times Magazine, Slate, Guernica, and Tin House, among others. He is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College.
Rainy Fields is a registered member of the Muskogee Creek Nation and is of Cherokee descent. After a back injury during her first year of college, Rainy took an acting class in an effort to boost her GPA and fell in love with the craft, eventually earning her BA in theater. Rainy now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a member of an all-Native improv troupe. Rainy is also an ensemble member of Native Voices at the Autry, and she co-hosts the podcast Hollywood Ndnz, which explores what it’s like to be Native and in the entertainment industry.
Stacey Glemboski is a seasoned voice artist and audiobook narrator of many books in the science fiction and young adult fiction genres.
Jason Culp, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, has been acting since the age of ten, and his credits include a variety of television, theater, and film roles. He is best known for his role as Julian Jerome on General Hospital. In addition to audiobooks and voice-over work in national commercials, he has also narrated documentaries for National Geographic and the History Channel.
William DeMerrit is a voice talent and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Suehyla El-Attar Young is an actress and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She dabbled in radio for a bit, working with several well-known stations as a morning news personality and DJ. Eventually, she returned to acting, on stage and in film. She has nurtured both crafts of acting and writing, working with local companies such as Theatre du Reve, Synchronicity Theatre, the Alliance Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company as dramaturge, actress, and playwright on several projects.
Rainy Fields is a registered member of the Muskogee Creek Nation and is of Cherokee descent. After a back injury during her first year of college, Rainy took an acting class in an effort to boost her GPA and fell in love with the craft, eventually earning her BA in theater. Rainy now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a member of an all-Native improv troupe. Rainy is also an ensemble member of Native Voices at the Autry, and she co-hosts the podcast Hollywood Ndnz, which explores what it’s like to be Native and in the entertainment industry.
Eunice Wong is a classically trained actor who works extensively in professional theaters across the United States and in New York City, as well as having appeared on HBO, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, and in various independent films. Eunice is a graduate of the Juilliard School Drama Division Actor Training Program and has also studied piano and singing at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. A first-generation Chinese Canadian, born in Toronto to Eric and Eleanor Wong, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong, Eunice grew up with her brother Eugene in Toronto and thanks her family for their constant love and support.
Iva-Marie Palmer is the author of The Summers and The End of the World as We Know It. She grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband.
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.