by Writing Workshops Staff
2 years ago
The 2023 edition of The Best American Essays carries a particular weight: it is the final volume shepherded by Robert Atwan, who founded the series and guided it for nearly four decades. Guest edited by Vivian Gornick, it gathers twenty-one essays that, as the editors put it, reflect their authors’ unapologetic observations about the world around them. You can read the full announcement here.
Gornick is one of American letters’ most incisive essayists and critics, and her selections carry the bracing clarity you’d expect from her — pieces unafraid to look hard at the world and name exactly what they find. That this particular volume also marks a farewell to Atwan’s long stewardship, after a run that helped define what the American essay could be, only deepens the occasion.
And then there are the writers. The twenty-one authors featured in The Best American Essays 2023 are Ciara Alfaro, Jillian Barnet, Sylvie Baumgartel, Eric Borsuk, Chris Dennis, Xujun Eberlein, Sandra Hager Eliason, George Estreich, Merrill Joan Gerber, Debra Gwartney, Edward Hoagland, Laura Kipnis, Phillip Lopate, Celeste Marcus, Sam Meekings, Sigrid Nunez, Kathryn Schulz, Robert Anthony Siegel, Scott Spencer, Angelique Stevens, and David Treuer. It’s a lineup that runs from celebrated veterans of the form to voices arriving with real force — the kind of table of contents you read twice.
It’s a volume to sit with slowly, and to keep returning to.
And a small, happy thing to leave here at the bottom of the page: Sandra Hager Eliason, one of this year’s essayists, studied with us on our Writing Workshop in Dublin, Ireland, and we are honored to be a small part of her writing journey.
And we’re simply thrilled to read all of the work in this issue. Cheers to all of the contributors!
Great writing rarely happens alone. If you’re looking for the community, expert instruction, and steady encouragement that help writers find their voice and reach their readers, explore our full slate of online creative writing workshops. Your own story is waiting to begin.
