Nonfiction, as a genre, is on the rise. Memoirs and essays are hitting the presses like hotcakes, from Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to Michelle Obama’s Becoming to Margaret Kimball’s And Now I Spill the Family Secrets. Nonfiction isn’t a new genre. It’s been an active part of literature for several centuries. With so much background to cover, here are the top five essays I’ve read in the last year, new and old.
5. “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard (1996)
Starting the list off strong with Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter”. This is a great introduction to the genre for those with limited experience reading nonfiction. It’s a simple essay, it doesn’t falter too much from the traditional form of the essay, but it does what it does exceedingly well. Centered around her relationship with her husband, her withering dog, and a mass shooting, this essay will draw you in right away. She finds her strength in playing with the perspectives of the different people in the essay, especially that of the shooter, Gang Lu. If you’re looking for a compelling essay, one about trauma, grief, and surviving the mundane, this is the one for you.
4. “The Great American Press Release” by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (2019)
Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s “The Great American Press Release” is beautifully written and tragically relevant. This essay centers around growing up with a marginalized identity, race, and the lasting effects of brutality on people of color. Each strand of this braided essay perfectly weaves into the next. Having read Ruffin’s fiction, I was eager to read what else he had in store. And he did not disappoint. This essay is powerfully reflective, much like his fiction, highlighting the trauma of police brutality, lynchings, lack of black stories in education, institutionalized racism, and what it means to raise a black child in an anti-black society.
3. “Red Shoes” by Susan Griffin (1993)
Susan Griffin is doing something very engaging in her essay, “Red Shoes”. This essay is written in two, interwoven parts: commentary on the role of fiction in examining one’s private life and a personal essay about her relationship with her grandparents, specifically her grandmother. This essay is wonderful and the intersection between the two threads made me audibly gasp. It was difficult to see the connection at first. I’ll admit, I was put off initially, but the essay is worth sticking with until the end. It’s compelling. It’s beautifully, stunningly honest.
2. “What It’s Like to Lose Your First Language” by Hasanthika Sirisena (2020)
Hasanthika Sirisena’s graphic essay “What It’s Like to Lose Your First Language” is awe inspiring. Beautiful artwork combined with beautiful writing combined with a pitch perfect message. Sirisena dives into identity, considering what the loss of their mother means for their relationship with their culture. Growing up in a society where using any language aside from the standard English is unacceptable, Sirisena reflects on what role language plays in their identity and what losing this part of their identity means for them as an adult. To avoid redundancy, I will simply leave it at this: Read this essay.
1. “The Body” by Jenny Boully (2002)
Hermit crab essays hold a special place in my heart and Jenny Boully’s “The Body” is no exception. This essay is written wholly in footnotes, the ‘body’ of the essay left blank. Boully reflects on gender, sexuality, and her relationships. The lack of an essay in this piece leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination, but so much is told with just footnotes. It was funny, insightful, and breathtakingly inventive.
RED INC. 