A true essay is "something hazarded, not definitive, not authoritative; something ventured on the basis of the author's personal experience and subjectivity," writes guest editor Jonathan Franzen in his introduction. However, his main criterion for selecting The Best American Essays 2016 was, in a word, risk. Whether the risks involved championing an unpopular opinion, the possibility of ruining a professional career, or irrevocably offending family, for Franzen, "the writer has to be like the firefighter, whose job, while everyone else is fleeing the flames, is to run straight into...

"They do what the essay form arguably does best: engaging the personal in order to reach larger themes . . . The essay form forces authors to take measure of themselves, and allows the reader to do so as well." --Publishers Weekly

The best-selling essayist Leslie Jamison picks the best essays from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites, bringing her incredible ability to "stitch together the intellectual and the emotional with the finesse of a crackerjack surgeon" (NPR) to the task.