On no authority other than a semester of intense study of essays (and essays on the essay) from Montaigne to the present, the students of my winter 2007 English 495 (History and Theory of the Essay) senior seminar set out to find the most essayistic (the "essayest") essays published in American literary journals in 2006. Our method was, perhaps appropriately, unsystematic, scatter-shot, driven by luck and play and personal preference. In ten groups, we read about twenty highly regarded literary journals, usually two issues of each. From these, each group selected ten "creative nonfiction" pieces, and from those ten, chose the "essayest."
This is not meant to subvert the excellent work of Robert Atwan and his yearly editors of the Best American Essays series. But I have noticed, and my students and many of my colleagues concur, that the term essay has been largely hijacked and adulterated beyond recognition, firstly by the pedagogues, who call every school writing assignment an "essay," and currently by memoirists, travel writers, new journalists, and other practitioners of "creative nonfiction," whose writing, excellent though it may be, often essays nothing, is not idea-driven, is not meditative or associative or tangential. Just try to google the word essay and see what results you get. This list is one small attempt to rescue the word essay.
There is no money, no prize, no republication attached to selection. There may be no honor. All we are saying is 1) give peace a chance, and 2) these are some really excellent essays, real essays. We sincerely hope that the essayists whose work we chose are pleased that someone has read and appreciated their essays, and that visitors to the site will take our recommendations and seek out the essays to read and enjoy them.
Without anything remotely resembling a story or a plot, Christ Arthur meditates on being, memory, presence, and absence, spurred by the thought of his soon-to-be-sold family home, specifically, the drawing room, which is "soon to be empty of us." For a glimpse of how essayistic this piece is, consider that after only two sentences beginning the essay, Arthur spends the next two pages digressing, questioning his own word choices, wondering at the inadequacy of presence and curiously and empty. Arthur's earnest, self-doubting, philosophical voice holds together seemingly disparate ideas, from perspective to liminality to the Buddhist concept of sunyata (voidness), offering along the way countless aphoristic gems, such as "The metaphysical is so tightly embedded in what we take to be the mundane,...the philosophical is so close-threaded all through the everyday." A quotidian sentiment, indeed, and, on the whole, a wonderful essay.
Selected by Patrick Madden
Selected by Catherine Curtis and Julianne Sheffield
Selected by David Grover and Kelly Monson
Mary Cappello touches on a quintessential quotidian theme in this essay. As she reflects on the various angles from which a person experiences awkwardness, she draws the reader into self-reflection. But Cappello does more than merely reflect on various awkward moments. She plays with the concept of awkwardness and even the very word itself. This conceptual wordplay makes this essay both a pleasure to read and an opportunity to explore the more uncomfortable realms of the human experience.
Selected by Joseph Gale and Becky Jensen
[Note: "Awkwardness" was published in 2004, not 2006. Joseph and Becky misunderstood the assignment, thus they delved into older issues. We're glad they did. The essay stays on the list.]
Selected by Patrick Madden
Kathryn Harrison investigates memory as a means of perceiving reality. An only child, she questions her own ability to remember clearly the morning when she found her mother had disappeared from her grandparents’ house Christmas evening. Without siblings or parents to inform who she is, Harrison worries that her memories are not fixed but are susceptible to revision; they loosely cradle the “slippery entity” of the self. Despite efforts to remember things as they "really" were, our memories are informed by our “highly permeable assemblage of loves and fears and plans, strengths and frailties, desire and dread and the intent—dimly conscious at best—to manage all these…”
Selected by Afton Johnson and Stacy Serafine
Selected by Joey Franklin and John Madsen
Selected by Lara Burton
Selected by Amy Jones and Lauren Shaw
Kimberly Meyer explores the evolution of her beliefs, both religious and otherwise, through her explication on how she found, loved, and then became disillusioned with Nietzsche's philosophies. Simultaneously, she reflects on her childhood, young adulthood, and motherhood. The essay is honest and contemplative, leaning toward memoir, though it taps into essayistic exploration towards the end when Meyer begins to look into the layered meanings of vulnerability.
Selected by Nick Castellanos and Amanda Dambrink
Selected by Ryan Blodgett and Alison Roberg
Selected by Lara Burton