Anthologies and Collections
- BU Libraries Search (BULS) This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of academic material provided by the library. The material covered by the search includes books, journals, scores, video and audio recordings, and other physical items held by the library. The search also covers ebooks and ejournals owned by the library, as well as online material provided by the library from a variety of sources.
In BU Libraries Search, the following subject searches are one way to find creative nonfiction and essays
American essays -- 20th century
American essays -- 21st century
You can also search in BULS for the term essay along with another word or phrase to try to locate essays by topic e.g.:
essays immigration
essays prison
Literary Magazines
- Fourth genrePublication Date: 1999-
- River teeth : a journal of nonfiction narrativePublication Date: 2003-
Select anthologies and collections of nonfiction essays
The Best of Brevity by
Literary Nonfiction. Flash Nonfiction. Essays. Memoir. Hybrid. How much of the human experience can fit into 750 words? A lot, it turns out. Since its founding in 1997, Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction has published hundreds of brief nonfiction essays by writers around the world, each within that strict word count. Over the past 20 years, Brevity has become one of the longest-running and most popular online literary publications, a journal readers regularly return to for insightful essays from skilled writers at every stage of their careers. Featuring examples of nonfiction forms such as memoir, narrative, lyric, braided, hermit crab, and hybrid, The Best of Brevity brings you 84 of the best-loved and most memorable reader favorites, collected in print for the first time. Compressed to their essence, these essays glint with drama, grief, love, and anger, as well as innumerable other lived intensities, resulting in an anthology that is as varied as it is unforgettable, leaving the reader transformed. With contributions from Krys Malcolm Belc, Jenny Boully, Brian Doyle, Roxane Gay, Daisy Hernández, Michael Martone, Ander Monson, Patricia Park, Kristen Radtke, Diane Seuss, Abigail Thomas, Jia Tolentino, and so many more, The Best of Brevity offers unparalleled diversity of style, form, and perspective for those interested in reading, writing, or teaching the flash nonfiction form.
ISBN: 9781941628232Publication Date: 2020Beyond memory : an anthology of contemporary Arab American creative nonfiction by "This anthology brings together the voices of both new and established Arab American writers, creating a compilation of essays and creative nonfiction that reveal the stories of the Arab diaspora. Writers from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, and Syria explore issues related to politics, culture, and racism. Coming from different countries and religions and including first and second-generation immigrants as well as those whose identities encompass more than a single culture, these writers tell stories that speak to the complexity of the Arab American experience. They travel through time and geography to reveal the circular nature of identity, inviting the reader to enter into an ever evolving landscape. Ranging from the traditional to the experimental, these essays present narratives in innovative styles. At this point in our history, such stories are urgently needed, and this anthology gives greater insight into the lives of Arab Americans. Entering into these personal stories allows readers to engage with the complexity of the Arab American community. The varied experiences of being an Arab American emerges through these pages with astounding vision"-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN: 1610756843Publication Date: 2020
Beyond the Godfather : Italian American writers on the real Italian American experience by
n the New York Times Book Review, Gay Talese raised the question. "Where are all the Italian American writers?" Two years later, editors Ciongoli and Parini respond convincingly with this anthology of essays by 23 Italian American writers. Memoirs in the first section reveal the truths of the people and relationships behind the stereotypes. Whether reflecting on rosary beads, the aroma of garlic sauteed in olive oil, a bigotry that labels a child "the smelly Italian," or the art of perfect ironing, these writers share abiding love and respect for their cultural heritage and engage readers with their poignant accounts. Some consider how these experiences shaped them as writers: Talese himself credits time spent in his family's dress shop as the source of his nonfiction writing style. The next section provides analyses of Italian American literature, and a third traces some Italian American political struggles.
Location: PS153.I8 B49 1997ISBN: 0874518458Publication Date: 1997
The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essay : Zuihitsu from the Tenth to the Twenty-First Century by
A court lady of the Heian era, an early modern philologist, a novelist of the Meiji period, and a physicist at Tokyo University. What do they have in common, besides being Japanese? They all wrote zuihitsu-a uniquely Japanese literary genre encompassing features of the nonfiction or personal essay and miscellaneous musings. For sheer range of subject matter and breadth of perspective, the zuihitsu is unrivaled in the Japanese literary tradition, which may explain why few examples have been translated into English.The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays presents a representative selection of more than one hundred zuihitsu from a range of historical periods written by close to fifty authors-from well-known figures, such as Matsuo Basho, Natsume Soseki, and Koda Aya, to such writers as Tachibana Nankei and Dekune Tatsuro, whose works appear here for the first time in English. Writers speak on the experience of coming down with a cold, the aesthetics of tea, the physiology and psychology of laughter, the demands of old age, standards of morality, the way to raise children, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the thoughts that accompany sleeplessness, the anxiety of undergoing surgery, and the unexpected benefits of training a myna bird to say "Thank you." These essays also provide moving descriptions of snowy landscapes, foggy London, the famous cherry blossoms of Ueno Park, and the appeal of rainy vistas, and relate the joys and troubles of everyone from desperate samurai to filial children to ailing cats.
ISBN: 9780231537551Publication Date: 2014
Deaf American Prose, 1980-2010 by
In Deaf life, the personal narrative holds sway because most Deaf individuals recall their formative years as solitary struggles to understand and to be understood. Few deaf people in the past related their stories in written form, relying instead on a different kind of "oral" tradition, that of American Sign Language. During the last several decades, however, a burgeoning bilingual deaf experience has ignited an explosion of Deaf writing that has pushed the potential of ASL-influenced English to extraordinary creative heights. Deaf American Prose: 1980-2010 presents a diverse cross-section of stories, essays, memoirs, and novel excerpts by a remarkable cadre of Deaf writers that mines this rich, bilingual environment.
The works in Deaf American Prose frame the Deaf narrative in myriad forms: Tom Willard sends up hearing patronization in his wicked satire "What Exactly Am I Supposed to Overcome?" Terry Galloway injects humor in "Words," her take on the identity issues of being hard of hearing rather than deaf or hearing. Other contributors relate familiar stories about familiar trials, such as Tonya Stremlau's account of raising twins, and Joseph Santini's short story of the impact on Deaf and hearing in-laws of the death of a son. The conflicts are well-known and heartfelt, but with wrinkles directly derived from the Deaf perspective.
Several of the contributors expand the Deaf affect through ASL glosses and visual/spatial elements. Sara Stallard emulates ASL on paper through its syntax and glosses, and by eliminating English elements, a technique used in dialogue by Kristen Ringman and others. Deaf American Prose features the work of other well-known contemporary Deaf writers, including co-editor Kristen Harmon, Christopher Jon Heuer, Raymond Luczak, and Willy Conley. The rising Deaf writers presented here further distinguish the first volume in this new series by thinking in terms of what they can bring to English, not what English can bring to them.
ISBN: 9781563685231Publication Date: 2012
Elemental : a collection of Michigan creative nonfiction by
Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction comes to us from twenty-three of Michigan’s most well-known essayists. A celebration of the elements, this collection is both the storm and the shelter. In her introduction, editor Anne-Marie Oomen recalls the "ritual dousing" of her storytelling group’s bonfire: "wind, earth, fire, water—all of it simultaneous in that one gesture. . . . In that moment we are bound together with these elements and with this place, the circle around the fire on the shores of a Great Lake closes, complete." The essays approach Michigan at the atomic level. This is a place where weather patterns and ecology matter. Farmers, miners, shippers, and loggers have built (or lost) their livelihood on Michigan’s nature—what could and could not be made out of our elements. From freshwater lakes that have shaped the ground beneath our feet to the industrial ebb and flow of iron ore and wind power—ours is a state of survival and transformation. In the first section of the book, "Earth," Jerry Dennis remembers working construction in northern Michigan. "Water" includes a piece from Jessica Mesman, who writes of the appearance of snow in different iterations throughout her life. The section "Wind" houses essays about the ungraspable nature of death from Toi Dericotte and Keith Taylor. "Fire" includes a piece by Mardi Jo Link, who recollects the unfortunate series of circumstances surrounding one of her family members. Elemental’s strength lies in its ability to learn from the past in the hope of defining a wiser future. A lot of literature can make this claim, but not all of it comes together so organically. Fans of nonfiction that reads as beautifully as fiction will love this collection.
ISBN: 9780814345689Publication Date: 2018
Gods and Soldiers : the Penguin anthology of contemporary African writing by
A one-of-a-kind collection showcasing the energy of new African literature Coming at a time when Africa and African writers are in the midst of a remarkable renaissance, Gods and Soldiers captures the vitality and urgency of African writing today. With stories from northern Arabic-speaking to southern Zulu-speaking writers, this collection conveys thirty different ways of approaching what it means to be African. Whether about life in the new urban melting pots of Cape Town and Luanda, or amid the battlefield chaos of Zimbabwe and Somalia, or set in the imaginary surreal landscapes born out of the oral storytelling tradition, these stories represent a striking cross section of extraordinary writing. Including works by J. M. Coetzee, Chimamanda Adichie, Nuruddin Farah, Binyavanga Wainaina, and Chinua Achebe, and edited by Rob Spillman of Tin House magazine, Gods and Soldiers features many pieces never before published, making it a vibrant and essential glimpse of Africa as it enters the twenty-first century.
Location: PN849.A352 G63 2009ISBN: 9780143114734Publication Date: 2009
Literary Journalism by
Some of the best and most original prose in America today is being written by literary journalists. Memoirs and personal essays, profiles, science and nature reportage, travel writing -- literary journalists are working in all of these forms with artful styles and fresh approaches. In Literary Journalism, editors Norman Sims and Mark Kramer have collected the finest examples of literary journalism from both the masters of the genre who have been working for decades and the new voices freshly arrived on the national scene. The fifteen essays gathered here include: -- John McPhee's account of the battle between army engineers and the lower Mississippi River -- Susan Orlean's brilliant portrait of the private, imaginative world of a ten-year-old boy -- Tracy Kidder's moving description of life in a nursing home -- Ted Conover's wild journey in an African truck convoy while investigating the spread of AIDS -- Richard Preston's bright piece about two shy Russian mathematicians who live in Manhattan and search for order in a random universe -- Joseph Mitchell's classic essay on the rivermen of Edgewater, New Jersey -- And nine more fascinating pieces of the nation's best new writing In the last decade this unique form of writing has grown exuberantly -- and now, in Literary Journalism, we celebrate fifteen of our most dazzling writers as they work with great vitality and astonishing variety.
Location: Mugar Stacks PS659 .L56 1995ISBN: 0345382226Publication Date: 1995
Mississippi Writers Reflections of Childhood and Youth: Volume II: Nonfiction by
Nonfiction is celebrated in this second volume of a monumental anthology in four volumes collecting fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama written by authors from Mississippi, a state that has been called the cradle of storytellers. In a five-year project sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, Abbott made selections from the works of Faulkner, Welty, Williams, Percy, and Wright along with stories, essays, poems, and plays both by eminently known and emerging writers from Mississippi. Each selection expresses the theme of Mississippi youth and childhood or its relevance to the life of the writer.
Location: PS558.M7 M55 1985 v.2ISBN: 9780878052349Publication Date: 1986
New daughters of Africa : an international anthology of writing by women of African descent by
The companion to the classic anthology Daughters of Africa--a major international collection that brings together the work of more than 200 women writers of African descent, celebrating their artistry and showcasing their contributions to modern literature and international culture. Contributors include: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie * Yrsa Daley Ward
 * Edwidge Danticat * Phillippa Yrsa De Villiers * Esi Edugyan * Eve Ewing * Nikki Finney * Roxane Gay
 * Margo Jefferson * Barbara Jenkins * Imbolo Mbue * Nnedi Okorafor * Chinelo Okparanta * Minna Salami * Zadie Smith * and more! Twenty-five years ago, Margaret Busby's Daughters of Africa was published to international acclaim and hailed as "an extraordinary body of achievement . . . a vital document of lost history" (Sunday Times) and "the ultimate reference guide" (Washington Post). New Daughters of Africa continues that tradition for a new generation. This magnificent follow-up to the original landmark anthology brings together fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged from across the globe in the past two decades, from Antigua to Zimbabwe and Angola to the United States. Key figures, including Margo Jefferson, Nawal El Saadawi, Edwidge Danticat, and Zadie Smith, join popular contemporaries such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Imbolo Mbue, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Taiye Selasi, and Chinelo Okparanta in celebrating the heritage that unites them. Each of the pieces in this remarkable collection demonstrates an uplifting sense of sisterhood, honors the strong links that endure from generation to generation, and addresses the common obstacles female writers of color face as they negotiate issues of race, gender, and class and address vital matters of independence, freedom, and oppression. A glorious portrayal of the richness, magnitude, and range of these visionary writers, New Daughters of Africa spans a range of genres--autobiography, memoir, oral history, letters, diaries, short stories, novels, poetry, drama, humor, politics, journalism, essays, and speeches--demonstrating the diversity and extraordinary literary achievements of black women who remain underrepresented, and whose contributions continue to be underrated in world culture today.
ISBN: 9780062912992Publication Date: 2019
Shapes of Native nonfiction : collected essays by contemporary writers by
An anthology of twenty-seven dazzling and distinct essays by Indigenous authors from Canada and the United States. The writers hold forth on a range of diverse topics from writing and species extinction to physical and mental health, colonisation, and trauma in diverse ways through the creative essay form. In this nonfiction anthology, form and craft take centre stage, with form providing the binding theme.
ISBN: 9780295745770Publication Date: 2019
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction : work from 1970 to the present by
From memoir to journalism, personal essays to cultural criticism, this indispensable anthology brings together works from all genres of creative nonfiction, with pieces by fifty contemporary writers including Cheryl Strayed, David Sedaris, Barbara Kingsolver, and more. Selected by five hundred writers, English professors, and creative writing teachers from across the country, this collection includes only the most highly regarded nonfiction work published since 1970.
ISBN: 9781416545118Publication Date: 2007
Walk till the dogs get mean : meditations on the forbidden from contemporary appalachia by
"In Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean, Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray collect essays from today's finest established and emerging writers with roots in Appalachia. Together, these essays take the theme of silencing in Appalachian culture, whether the details of that theme revolve around faith, class, work, or family legacies. In essays that take wide-ranging forms-making this an ideal volume for creative nonfiction classes-contributors write about families left behind, hard-earned educations, selves transformed, identities chosen, and risks taken. They consider the courage required for the inheritances they carry. Toughness and generosity alike characterize works by Dorothy Allison, bell hooks, Silas House, and others. These writers travel far away from the boundaries of a traditional Appalachia, and then circle back-always-to the mountains that made each of them the distinctive thinking and feeling people they ultimately became. The essays in Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean are an individual and collective act of courage.
ISBN: 9780821445310Publication Date: 2015
