5 Inspiring Essay Anthologies Every Writer Should Own

BooksWriting Craft

Feb 16

Anthologies are creative and informative, and they can be a way to highlight important subjects as well as overlooked genres and underrepresented writers/artists. They’re also a way to study a specific genre and how different writers do their thing. I’ve returned to my own anthologies enough over the years that I’ve developed a strong appreciation for the inspiring compendium of the anthology. I love being able to pick one up and put it back until curiosity strikes again, so it feels like I’m perpetually reading them.

Here is a list of five inspiring essay anthologies to fuel your creative nonfiction endeavors and perfect your craft as a writer.

The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman

This is a great anthology for anyone interested in writing exploring marginalized identity through the essay form. “The title,” say editors Suleyman and Shukla, “was a response to the narrative that immigrants are ‘bad’ by default until they prove themselves otherwise.” The last essay by Jenny Chang, “How to Center Your Own Story,” is an in-depth step-by-step guide to centering your story as a person of color in America-- where that identity is so often questioned, and her guide is the perfect ending to a book of stellar writers doing just that.

In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction edited by Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones.

This is a flash anthology. Except it was written before creative nonfiction writers were adopting the term “flash,” (1996!) so the editors refer to the essays as “Shorts,” stories 2,000 words or less. Joy Harjo, Vivian Gornick, Barry Lopez and numerous superstar writers and poets make their way into this anthology. If you’ve ever been curious about exploring the art of the really, really Short essay, this book is for you.

The Next American Essay: (A New History of the Essay) edited by John D’Agata

What makes this book stand out is the way each of these essays is a gentle, to not-so-gentle push against traditional forms and ideas of what an essay looks like. To top it off, D’Agata has prefaced each essay with a small intro, which in themselves feel like mini essays. In one intro prefacing an essay about French cooking by Henry Matthews (1981), I learned the word essay was used as a verb meaning “to weigh metals” by an anonymous scientist in 1368.

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay

The essays in Not That Bad specifcally focus on rape culture. As Michelle Chen begins to define what that means in her essay, “Bodies Against Borders,” Chen writes, “sexual violence is a global epidemic that is all around us, yet it is nowhere, precisely because it permeates every facet of our presence in the world, echoing throughout our political and popular cultures…” . The essays in this inspiring anthology all have something to teach us. The authors range greatly in gender and race, which indirectly highlights the intersectionality of the affects of rape culture. These essays shatter our ingrained stereotypes surrounding victimization with crafted specificity. It’s not the kind of book that’s easy to pick up, but it’s well worth it to read writers share their “unspeakable” experiences on the page.

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to The Present edited by Lex Williford and Michael Martone

This book is a holdover from my school days and I still flip through it for inspiration. I read it for a class that specifically focused on studying how essayists use form to their advantage, and the betterment of the essay. Eula Biss, Dinty W. Moore and Anne Carson all use a fragmented or collage-like form to enhance the tension in their work. Another benefit of these anthologies and particularly this one, is getting the chance to see some really great fiction writers and poets working in another form.

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