The Best American Essays 2013 Read Free

have abandoned print for online formats. Yet
Hobart
(see Tod Goldberg, “When They Let Them Bleed,” p. 205) began life online in 2001 but then launched into print a few years later. Edited by Aaron Burch,
Hobart
(not affiliated with the New York State men’s college of that name), though published irregularly, still maintains an active online presence. Though it modestly calls itself “another literary journal,”
Hobart
is far from typical, especially in some of its theme issues, which, like the one on “Luck” published in 2012 to commemorate the magazine’s thirteenth issue, feature a captivating range of writing and some remarkably quirky items.
    These are just a few of the literary journals I read regularly. Years ago, when I taught courses on magazine writing I’d begin by asking students which magazines they would submit work to. It should probably not have come as a surprise, but I was nevertheless surprised to see that nearly all of them said
The New Yorker
. I assume this response had less to do with their talents and ambition than with the fact that it was the only magazine of a literary nature they’d heard of.
The New Yorker
is without doubt a great magazine, one that publishes memorable work issue after issue, forty-seven issues a year. Yet it’s interesting to note that in this collection
The New Yorker
appears only once. This volume is indeed a tribute to the astonishing amount of great writing that is consistently published year after year in what we used to call the “little magazines.”
     
    The Best American Essays
features a selection of the year’s outstanding essays, essays of literary achievement that show an awareness of craft and forcefulness of thought. Hundreds of essays are gathered annually from a wide assortment of national and regional publications. These essays are then screened, and approximately one hundred are turned over to a distinguished guest editor, who may add a few personal discoveries and who makes the final selections. The list of notable essays appearing in the back of the book is drawn from a final comprehensive list that includes not only all the essays submitted to the guest editor but also many that were not submitted.
    To qualify for the volume, the essay must be a work of respectable literary quality, intended as a fully developed, independent essay on a subject of general interest (not specialized scholarship), originally written in English (or translated by the author) for publication in an American periodical during the calendar year. Today’s essay is a highly flexible and shifting form, however, so these criteria are not carved in stone.
    Magazine editors who want to be sure that their contributors will be considered each year should submit issues or subscriptions to The Best American Essays, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116. Writers and editors are welcome to submit published essays from any American periodical for consideration; unpublished work does not qualify for the series and cannot be reviewed or evaluated. Please note: all submissions must be directly from the publication and not in manuscript or printout format. Editors of online magazines and literary bloggers should not assume that appropriate work will be seen; they are invited to submit printed copies of the essays (with full citations) to the address above.
    As always, I appreciate all the assistance I regularly receive from my editors, Deanne Urmy and Nicole Angeloro. Liz Duvall once again expertly handled production. I remember the excitement of reading the first essay I’d seen by Cheryl Strayed, then a graduate student in creative writing at Syracuse University. “Heroin/e” appeared in what was one of my favorite magazines at the time,
Doubletake
, in 1999 and was selected by Alan Lightman for
The Best American Essays 2000
. Since that early appearance, Cheryl Strayed has emerged as one of the country’s outstanding nonfiction authors. It is a