The Contemporary American Essay

The past two decades in America have seen a blossoming of creative nonfiction, and no one is better suited to curate that exciting resurgence than Phillip Lopate. In this remarkable collection, he mingles new and younger voices-like Samantha Irby, Meghan O'Gieblyn, Leslie Jamison, Rivka Galchen, Karen Russell, and Teju Cole-with such long-established eminences as Harold Bloom, Susan Sontag, Oliver Sacks, Janet Malcolm, Barry Lopez, and Joyce Carol Oates. He brings together a wide variety of perspectives and styles, in the work of Amy Tan, Anne Carson, Nicholson Baker, Hilton Als, Alexander Chee, Lucy Grealy, Margo Jefferson, Lydia Davis, Ian Frazier, Laura Kipnis, Wayne Koestenbaum, Jonathan Lethem, Camille Paglia, David Sedaris, and many more.