The Best American Essays 2026

The Best American Essays 2026

A collection of the year’s best essays, selected by critically acclaimed author of The Future Is History and How to Survive Totalitarianism and New York Times columnist, M. Gessen. The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. M. Gessen, critically acclaimed essayist, New York Times columnist, and National Book Award winner, selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year. MASHA GESSEN is a journalist who has written for Slate , Seed , the  New Republic , the New York Times , and other publications, and is the author of numerous books, including The Future is History , which has been nominated for the National Book Award.  Kim Dana Kupperman is the author of the award-winning essay collection  I Just Lately Started Buying Wings: Missives from the Other Side of Silence;  a memoir,  The Last of Her;  and a historical novel,  Six Thousand Miles to Home.  She is the editor of  You: An Anthology of Essays Devoted to the Second Person  and the founding editor of Welcome Table Press, whose mission is to publish and celebrate the essay, in all its forms.