The Best American Essays


The Best American Essays is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States. It was started in 1986 and is now part of The Best American Series published by HarperCollins. Articles are chosen using the same procedure with other titles in the Best American series; the series editor chooses about 100 article candidates, from which the guest editor picks 25 or so for publication; the remaining runner-up articles listed in the appendix. The series was edited by Robert Atwan from its inception in 1986 through 2023. Kim Dana Kupperman is the new series editor starting in 2024. Joyce Carol Oates assisted in the editing process until 2000 with the publication of The Best American Essays of the Century.

Guest editors

Contributing publications

The Alaska Quarterly ReviewThe BafflerThe Boston ReviewBuzzFeedElectric LiteratureThe Florida ReviewGrantaHarper's MagazineThe Kenyon ReviewLapham's Quarterlyn+1The New York Times MagazineNorth American ReviewOxford AmericanThe Threepenny ReviewTin HouseTransition Magazine