The Best American Essays 2022
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A collection of the year’s best essays, selected by award-winning writer Alexander Chee.
Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
Alexander Chee
ALEXANDER CHEE is the author of the novels Edinburgh and the national bestseller The Queen of the Night. His essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel was named a best book of the year in 2018 by New York Magazine, the Washington Post, Publisher's Weekly, NPR, and Time. In 2025, Kirkus Reviews named it one of the hundred best books of nonfiction of the 21st century. Chee is a recipient of the NEA Fellowship in Fiction, The Whiting Award, The Guggenheim and The USA Artists’ Fellowship. He teaches creative writing at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.
More by Alexander Chee
Robert Atwan
ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.
More by Robert Atwan
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