The Best American Essays 2013 (49 page)

V
ANESSA
V
ESELKA
is the author of the novel
Zazen
, which won the 2012 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for fiction. Her short stories have appeared in
Tin House
and
ZYZZYVA
, and her nonfiction is found in
GQ
, the
Atlantic
, the
American Reader
, and
Salon.com
. She has also been, at times, a teenage runaway, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother.

M
ATTHEW
V
OLLMER
is the author of
Future Missionaries of America
, a collection of stories, and
Inscriptions for Headstones
, a collection of essays, each crafted as an epitaph and each unfolding in a single sentence. With David Shields, he is coeditor of
Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts
. His work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including the
Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Ecotone, New England Review, elimae, DIAGRAM
, the
Normal School
, the
Carolina Quarterly, Oxford American
, and the
Sun
. A recent winner of an NEA fellowship, he is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech, where he directs the undergraduate creative writing program.

Although she is “originally from” Shanghai, V
ICKI
W
EIQI
Y
ANG
currently resides in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where she studies political science at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include structures of governance, political theory, and security in East Asia. She has yet to muster the mettle required to call herself a writer, so she prefers the term
student
.

M
AKO
Y
OSHIKAWA
is currently at work on a memoir about her father. She is the author of the novels
One Hundred and One Ways
and
Once Removed
. Her work has been translated into six languages; awards for her writing include a Radcliffe Fellowship. As a literary critic she has published articles that explore the relationship between incest and race in twentieth-century American fiction. Her essays have appeared in the
Missouri Review
and the
Southern Indiana Review
. She is a professor of creative writing at Emerson College, Boston.

S
ELECTED BY
R
OBERT
A
TWAN

A
NWAR
F. A
CCAWI

The Camel,
The Sun
, October.

J
OAN
A
COCELLA

Once upon a Time,
The New Yorker
, July 23.

J
UDITH
A
DKINS

The Tree, the Forest,
Colorado Review
, Fall/Winter.

J
ERRY
A
DLER

Raging Bulls,
Wired
, September.

J
ASON
A
LBERT

Down and Out in a Repurposed Troop Carrier,
Morning News
, August 27.

P
AMELA
A
LEXANDER

Brush of Wildness,
Cimarron Review
, Fall.

S
UE
A
LLISON

What I Did Without You,
Crazyhorse
, Spring.

H
ILTON
A
LS

I Am Your Conscious, I Am Love,
Harper’s Magazine
, December.

A
IMEE
A
NDERSON

Indian Springs,
Gargoyle
, no. 58.

D
ONALD
A
NDERSON

Gathering Noise,
Epoch
, vol. 61, no. 2.

I
SAAC
A
NDERSON

Lord God Bird,
Image
, no. 72.

A
NONYMOUS

The Facts of the Matter,
TriQuarterly
, October 22.

D
AVID
A
NTIN

White Ravens Black Helicopters,
Southern Review
, Spring.

J
ACOB
M. A
PPEL

Livery,
Southeast Review
, vol. 30, no. 1.

E
LIZABETH
A
RNOLD

Crossing the Divide,
Gettysburg Review
, Autumn.

A
LAN
A
RRIVEE

The Appropriate Use of Hands,
Florida Review
, Summer.

C
HRIS
A
RTHUR

Looking Behind “Nothing’s” Door,
Hotel Amerika
, Spring.

O
LUMAYOWA
A
TTE

Road to Ibadan,
New Letters
, vol. 79, no. 1.

T
IMOTHY
A
UBRY

Sizing Up Oprah,
The Point
, Spring.

L
AURA
J
EAN
B
AKER

Year of the Tiger,
War, Literature, and the Arts
, no. 24.

R
OSECRANS
B
ALDWIN

Our French Connection,
Morning News
, May 29.

R
ICK
B
AROT

Morandi Sonnet,
ZYZZYVA
, Winter.

J
OHN
B
ARTH

The End?,
Granta
, Winter.

R
ICK
B
ASS

The Larch: A Love Story,
Orion
, September/October.

E
LISSA
B
ASSIST

The Never-to-Be Bride,
New York Times
, Sunday, April 29.

C
HARLES
B
AXTER

Undoings: An Essay in Three Parts,
Colorado Review
, Spring.

C
RIS
B
EAM

Mother, Stranger,
Atavist
, January.

M
ARK
B
EAVER

Taxidermy,
Third Coast
, Fall.

L
OUIS
B
EGLEY

My Europe,
New York Review of Books
, April 5.

T
HOMAS
B
ELLER

The Fun of Bad Business,
Oxford American
, no. 77.

G
EOFFREY
B
ENT

The Virtuoso,
Boulevard
, Fall.

M
ISCHA
B
ERLINSKI

A Farewell to Haiti,
New York Review of Books
, March 22.

F
LYNN
B
ERRY

Surfing,
Los Angeles Review
, Fall.

S
ASKIA
B
EUDEL

Ground Glass,
Iowa Review
, Spring.

J
ILL
B
IALOSKY

How to Say Good-Bye,
Real Simple
, February.

S
VEN
B
IRKERTS

It Wants to Find You,
Agni
, no. 76.

A
LTHEA
B
LACK

Essay to be Read at 3
A.M.
,
Narrative
.

K
ATHLEEN
B
LACKBURN

Where Now Is,
River Teeth
, Fall.

J
UDY
B
LUNT

Occupying the Real West,
New Letters
, vol. 78, nos. 3 & 4.

B
ELLE
B
OGGS

The Art of Waiting,
Orion
, March/April.

J
OE
B
ONOMO

Live Nude Essay!
Gulf Coast
, Winter/Spring.

R
OBERT
B
OYERS

My “Others,”
Yale Review
, January.

N
ATHANIEL
B
RODIE

Sparks,
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring.

S
TEVEN
M
ATTHEW
B
ROWN

Rest Stop Apologia,
Black Warrior Review
, Spring/Summer.

L
INDA
B
UCKMASTER

Becoming Memory,
Upstreet
, no. 8.

R
ACHEL
I
DA
B
UFF

All the Strange Hours: A Taxonomy,
Southern Review
, Winter.

F
RANK
B
URES

The Fall of the Creative Class,
Thirty Two
, July/August.

T
RACY
B
URKHOLDER

Proof,
Cincinnati Review
, Summer.

C
ARAND
B
URNET

Axis,
Gulf Coast
, Summer/Fall.

F
RANKLIN
B
URROUGHS

For What Blood Was Worth,
Sewanee Review
, Summer.

S
TEPHEN
B
URT

On Growing Up Between Genders,
New Haven Review
, Summer.

S
AM
B
UTLER

Elvis Presley Has Been Avenged,
Gettysburg Review
, Winter.

P
ETER
B
YRNE

Cliché Bound in Naples,
Able Muse
, Summer.

B
ILL
C
APOSSERE

Strange Travelers,
Colorado Review
, Fall/Winter.

A
NNE
C
ARSON

We Point the Bone,
Tin House
, no. 52.

O
SCAR
C
ÁSARES

My Name Is Cásares,
Texas Monthly
, November.

M
AUD
C
ASEY

A Stubborn Desire,
A Public Space
, no. 15.

F
RANK
C
ASSESE

It Doesn’t Mean We’re Wasting Our Time,
Guernica
, November 1.

M
AURICIO
C
ASTILLO

MD, ☺,
American Journal of Neuroradiology
, September.

L
ESLIE
C
ATON

Do You Really Want a Bird?,
Wapsipinicon Almanac
, no. 19.

J
ANE
C
AWTHORNE

Something as Big as a Mountain,
Prism
, Spring.

M
ELISSA
C
HADBURN

The Throwaways,
The Rumpus
, January 25.

M
AY
-L
EE
C
HAI

The Blue Boot,
Missouri Review
, Summer.

S
TEVEN
C
HURCH

Fight, Bull,
Prairie Schooner
, Winter.

A
NDREW
D. C
OHEN

Searching for Benny Paret,
Normal School
, Spring.

P
AULA
M
ARANTZ
Cohen

The Meanings of Forgery,
Southwest Review
, vol. 97, no. 1.

R
ACHEL
C
OHEN

Gold, Golden, Gilded, Glittering,
The Believer
, November/December.

R
ICH
C
OHEN

Pirate City,
Paris Review
, Summer.

B
ARBARA
F
LUG
C
OLIN

Now Let’s Stare at the Purple,
Teachers & Writers Magazine
, Winter.

W
ILHEMINA
C
ONDON

Walnut and Vine,
North Dakota Quarterly
, vol. 77, no. 4.

E
LI
C
ONNAUGHTON

Burial,
Alligator Juniper
, 2012.

R
EBECCA
C
OOK

Flame,
Southeast Review
, vol. 30, no. 1.

M
ARTHA
C
OOLEY

Go Tell Your Father,
Agni
, no. 76.