"The first decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a blossoming of creative nonfiction. In this extraordinary collection, Phillip Lopate gathers essays by forty-seven of America's best contemporary writers, mingling long-established eminences with newer voices and making room for a wide variety of perspectives and styles. The Contemporary American Essay is a monument to a remarkably adaptable form and a treat for anyone who loves fantastic writing"--

Introduction --

I am the happiness of this world / Hilton Als -- One summer / Nicholson Baker -- Portrait of the bagel as a young man / Thomas Beller -- Brave face / Sven Birkerts -- Excerpt from On immunity / Eula Biss -- Tactless / Mary Cappello -- Decreation: how women like Sappho, Marguerite Porete and Simone Weil tell God / Anne Carson -- Home alone / Terry Castle -- Girl / Alexander Chee -- Black body / Teju Cole -- Greedy sleep / Bernard Cooper -- Doctor is a woman / Sloan Crosley -- Loitering / Charles D'Ambrosio -- Matricide / Meghan Daum -- Joyas voladoras / Brian Doyle -- Otherwise known as the human condition (with particular reference to doughnut plant doughnuts) / Geoff Dyer -- CID-LAX-BOG / Lina Ferreira -- Doing no harm: some thoughts on reading and writing in the age of umbrage / Lynn Freed -- Case of the angry daughter / Rivka Galchen -- Scat / Ross Gay -- On revenge / Louise Gluck -- Faculty wife / Emily Fox Gordon -- Other people's secrets / Patricia Hampl -- Aquarium / Aleksandar Hemon -- Terror of love / Samantha Irby -- Empathy exams / Leslie Jamison -- Negroland / Margo Jefferson -- Domestic gulags / Laura Kipnis -- Ann; Death and the maiden / David Lazar -- Dear friend, from my life I write to you in your life / Yiyun Li -- Experience necessary / Phillip Lopate -- Invitation / Barry Lopez -- Bodies in motion and at rest / Thomas Lynch -- Draft no. 4 / John McPhee -- Failure: a meditation, another iteration (with interruptions) / Ander Monson -- Live through that?! / Eileen Myles -- Excerpt from The Argonauts / Maggie Nelson -- Homeschool / Meghan O'Gieblyn -- A visit to San Quentin / Joyce Carol Oates -- Busted in New York / Darryl Pinckney -- Against "gunmetal" / Lia Purpura -- Beeper world / Karen Russell -- This old house / David Sedairs -- Differences: sex, separateness & marriage / Shifra Sharlin -- Information sickness / David Sheilds -- Gray area: thinking with a damaged brain / Floyd Skloot -- Cassandra among the creeps / Rebecca Solnit -- Eric Garner and me / Clifford Thompson -- We out here / Wesley Yang