new essay collections 2023

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The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2022

Featuring bob dylan, elena ferrante, zora neale hurston, jhumpa lahiri, melissa febos, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime ; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Essay Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing  by Elena Ferrante (Europa)

12 Rave • 12 Positive • 4 Mixed

“The lucid, well-formed essays that make up In the Margins  are written in an equally captivating voice … Although a slim collection, there is more than enough meat here to nourish both the common reader and the Ferrante aficionado … Every essay here is a blend of deep thought, rigorous analysis and graceful prose. We occasionally get the odd glimpse of the author…but mainly the focus is on the nuts and bolts of writing and Ferrante’s practice of her craft. The essays are at their most rewarding when Ferrante discusses the origins of her books, in particular the celebrated Neapolitan Novels, and the multifaceted heroines that power them … These essays might not bring us any closer to finding out who Ferrante really is. Instead, though, they provide valuable insight into how she developed as a writer and how she works her magic.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Star Tribune )

2. Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri (Princeton University Press)

8 Rave • 14 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the ‘essential aesthetic and political mission’ of translation. She is excellent in all three modes—so excellent, in fact, that I, a translator myself, could barely read this book. I kept putting it aside, compelled by Lahiri’s writing to go sit at my desk and translate … One of Lahiri’s great gifts as an essayist is her ability to braid multiple ways of thinking together, often in startling ways … a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance; her sentences seem simple even when they’re complex. Their beauty and clarity alone would be enough to wake readers up. ‘Look,’ her essays seem to say: Look how much there is for us to wake up to.”

–Lily Meyer ( NPR )

3. The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster)

10 Rave • 15 Positive • 7 Mixed • 4 Pan

“It is filled with songs and hyperbole and views on love and lust even darker than Blood on the Tracks … There are 66 songs discussed here … Only four are by women, which is ridiculous, but he never asked us … Nothing is proved, but everything is experienced—one really weird and brilliant person’s experience, someone who changed the world many times … Part of the pleasure of the book, even exceeding the delectable Chronicles: Volume One , is that you feel liberated from Being Bob Dylan. He’s not telling you what you got wrong about him. The prose is so vivid and fecund, it was useless to underline, because I just would have underlined the whole book. Dylan’s pulpy, noir imagination is not always for the squeamish. If your idea of art is affirmation of acceptable values, Bob Dylan doesn’t need you … The writing here is at turns vivid, hilarious, and will awaken you to songs you thought you knew … The prose brims everywhere you turn. It is almost disturbing. Bob Dylan got his Nobel and all the other accolades, and now he’s doing my job, and he’s so damn good at it.”

–David Yaffe ( AirMail )

4.  Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos (Catapult)

13 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an excerpt from Body Work here

“In her new book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative , memoirist Melissa Febos handily recuperates the art of writing the self from some of the most common biases against it: that the memoir is a lesser form than the novel. That trauma narratives should somehow be over—we’ve had our fill … Febos rejects these belittlements with eloquence … In its hybridity, this book formalizes one of Febos’s central tenets within it: that there is no disentangling craft from the personal, just as there is no disentangling the personal from the political. It’s a memoir of a life indelibly changed by literary practice and the rigorous integrity demanded of it …

Febos is an essayist of grace and terrific precision, her sentences meticulously sculpted, her paragraphs shapely and compressed … what’s fresh, of course, is Febos herself, remapping this terrain through her context, her life and writing, her unusual combinations of sources (William H. Gass meets Elissa Washuta, for example), her painstaking exactitude and unflappable sureness—and the new readers she will reach with all of this.”

–Megan Milks ( 4Columns )

5. You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston (Amistad)

12 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

“… a dazzling collection of her work … You Don’t Know Us Negroes reveals Hurston at the top of her game as an essayist, cultural critic, anthropologist and beat reporter … Hurston is, by turn, provocative, funny, bawdy, informative and outrageous … Hurston will make you laugh but also make you remember the bitter divide in Black America around performance, language, education and class … But the surprising page turner is at the back of the book, a compilation of Hurston’s coverage of the Ruby McCollom murder trial …

Some of Hurston’s writing is sensationalistic, to be sure, but it’s also a riveting take of gender and race relations at the time … Gates and West have put together a comprehensive collection that lets Hurston shine as a writer, a storyteller and an American iconoclast.”

–Lisa Page ( The Washington Post )

6. Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to an interview with Rachel Aviv here

“… written with an astonishing amount of attention and care … Aviv’s triumphs in relating these journeys are many: her unerring narrative instinct, the breadth of context brought to each story, her meticulous reporting. Chief among these is her empathy, which never gives way to pity or sentimentality. She respects her subjects, and so centers their dignity without indulging in the geeky, condescending tone of fascination that can characterize psychologists’ accounts of their patients’ troubles. Though deeply curious about each subject, Aviv doesn’t treat them as anomalous or strange … Aviv’s daunted respect for uncertainty is what makes Strangers to Ourselves distinctive. She is hyperaware of just how sensitive the scale of the self can be.”

–Charlotte Shane ( Bookforum )

7. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors (Graywolf)

11 Rave • 1 Positive Read an excerpt from A Line in the World here

“Nors, known primarily as a fiction writer, here embarks on a languorous and evocative tour of her native Denmark … The dramas of the past are evoked not so much through individual characters as through their traces—buildings, ruins, shipwrecks—and this westerly Denmark is less the land of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and sleek Georg Jensen designs than a place of ancient landscapes steeped in myth … People aren’t wholly incidental to the narrative. Nors introduces us to a variety of colorful characters, and shares vivid memories of her family’s time in a cabin on the coast south of Thyborøn. But in a way that recalls the work of Barry Lopez, nature is at the heart of this beautiful book, framed in essay-like chapters, superbly translated by Caroline Waight.”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

8. Raising Raffi: The First Five Years by Keith Gessen (Viking)

4 Rave • 10 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Raising Raffi here

“A wise, mild and enviably lucid book about a chaotic scene … Is it OK to out your kid like this? … Still, this memoir will seem like a better idea if, a few decades from now, Raffi is happy and healthy and can read it aloud to his own kids while chuckling at what a little miscreant he was … Gessen is a wily parser of children’s literature … He is just as good on parenting manuals … Raising Raffi offers glimpses of what it’s like to eke out literary lives at the intersection of the Trump and Biden administrations … Needing money for one’s children, throughout history, has made parents do desperate things — even write revealing parenthood memoirs … Gessen’s short book is absorbing not because it delivers answers … It’s absorbing because Gessen is a calm and observant writer…who raises, and struggles with, the right questions about himself and the world.”

–Dwight Garner ( The New York Times )

9. The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser (Doubleday)

8 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan Watch an interview with CJ Hauser here

“17 brilliant pieces … This tumbling, in and out of love, structures the collection … Calling Hauser ‘honest’ and ‘vulnerable’ feels inadequate. She embraces and even celebrates her flaws, and she revels in being a provocateur … It is an irony that Hauser, a strong, smart, capable woman, relates to the crane wife’s contortions. She felt helpless in her own romantic relationship. I don’t have one female friend who has not felt some version of this, but putting it into words is risky … this collection is not about neat, happy endings. It’s a constant search for self-discovery … Much has been written on the themes Hauser excavates here, yet her perspective is singular, startlingly so. Many narratives still position finding the perfect match as a measure of whether we’ve led successful lives. The Crane Wife dispenses with that. For that reason, Hauser’s worldview feels fresh and even radical.”

–Hope Reese ( Oprah Daily )

10. How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo (Viking)

8 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from How to Read Now here

“Elaine Castillo’s How to Read Now begins with a section called ‘Author’s Note, or a Virgo Clarifies Things.’ The title is a neat encapsulation of the book’s style: rigorous but still chatty, intellectual but not precious or academic about it … How to Read Now proceeds at a breakneck pace. Each of the book’s eight essays burns bright and hot from start to finish … How to Read Now is not for everybody, but if it is for you, it is clarifying and bracing. Castillo offers a full-throated critique of some of the literary world’s most insipid and self-serving ideas …

So how should we read now? Castillo offers suggestions but no resolution. She is less interested in capital-A Answers…and more excited by the opportunity to restore a multitude of voices and perspectives to the conversation … A book is nothing without a reader; this one is co-created by its recipients, re-created every time the page is turned anew. How to Read Now offers its audience the opportunity to look past the simplicity we’re all too often spoon-fed into order to restore ourselves to chaos and complexity—a way of seeing and reading that demands so much more of us but offers even more in return.”

–Zan Romanoff ( The Los Angeles Times )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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Spring 2023 Announcements: Essays & Literary Criticism

This season’s titles include career retrospectives from cultural critics, musings from media figures, reflections on the purpose of literature, and examinations of William Shakespeare’s legacy and treatment of race.

The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening

Ari Shapiro. HarperOne, Mar. 21 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-322134-5)

Shapiro, cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered , debuts with a collection of autobiographical essays on connecting across difference. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

How to Write About Africa: Essays

Binyavanga Wainaina. OneWorld, June 6 ($27, ISBN 978-0-8129-8965-6)

These pieces by the late Kenyan writer discuss coming out and Western media’s racist depictions of Africa.

The Nerves and Their Endings: Essays on Crisis and Response

Jessica Gaitán Johannesson. Scribe US, Feb. 7 ($15 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-950354-59-7)

Bookseller and climate activist Johannesson explores how people come to terms with crises, in essays that touch on climate change, eating disorders, and privilege.

Once upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature

Sarah Hart. Flatiron, Apr. 11 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-85088-1)

Mathematician Hart unpacks the numerical patterns and references in writings by James Joyce, George Eliot, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis

Sara Marcus. Belknap, May 30 ($39.95, ISBN 978-0-674-24865-6)

Examining works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Lead Belly, and Audre Lorde, English professor Marcus suggests that disappointment undergirds the major works of 20th-century American art and thought.

Quietly Hostile: Essays

Samantha Irby. Vintage, May 16 ($17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-31569-9)

The Wow, No Thank You author delivers autobiographical pieces on therapy, reiki, and QVC addiction.

Shakespeare Was a Woman & Other Heresies

Elizabeth Winkler. Simon & Schuster, May 2 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-98217-126-1)

Journalist Winkler takes on the Bard’s legacy by investigating how he came to hold his place in the Western canon and why the debate over the authorship of his plays is so heated.

Tabula Rasa, Vol. 1

John McPhee. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 11 ($27, ISBN 978-0-374-60360-1)

McPhee serves up vignettes from his career he had intended to write about, but didn’t get around to, including episodes about meeting Thornton Wilder and visiting the river-bound islands of central California.

Wanting: Women Writing About Desire

Edited by Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters. Catapult, Feb. 14 ($17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64622-011-3)

Women writers examine the intersection of gender and desire, be it for cowboy boots, a former lover, or time.

Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination

Adam Shatz. Verso, May 9 ($29.95, ISBN 978-1-80429-059-0)

The U.S. editor of the London Review of Books probes the relationship between writers’ work and their political commitments by looking at the lives of such intellectuals as Jean-Paul Sartre, Edward Said, and Richard Wright.

Essays & Literary Criticism Listings

Abrams Image

Comedy Bang! Bang! the Podcast: The Book by Scott Aukerman (Apr. 25, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-4197-5481-4) adapts the antics of Aukerman’s podcast to the page, featuring dispatches from the show’s fictional characters. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

The Kevin Powell Reader: Essential Writings and Conversations by Kevin Powell (Apr. 4, $32.95, ISBN 978-1-63614-101-5) collects pieces that span the cultural critic’s career on topics including the AIDS epidemic, the murder of George Floyd, and such celebrities as Dave Chappelle and bell hooks.

How We Do It: Black Writers on Writing in Color , edited by Jericho Brown and Darlene Taylor (July 4, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-327819-6), brings together previously published and original essays by writers of color on their craft. Natasha Trethewey, Jamaica Kincaid, and Tiphanie Yanique are among the contributors.

Astra House

Pleasure of Thinking by Wang Xiaobo, trans. by Yan Yan (July 25, $26, ISBN 978-1-66260-125-5), provides new translations of major essays by the Chinese intellectual weighing in on Italo Calvino, living in the U.S., and getting mugged.

Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter by Gary Saul Morson (May 9, $37.95, ISBN 978-0-674-97180-6) argues that Russian literature has long been animated by the friction between radical dogmatism and a more inwardly focused humanism.

Cambridge Univ.

Dublin: A Writer’s City by Chris Morash (Mar. 16, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-108-83164-2) offers a literary tour of the city by unpacking the writings of W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett.

The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt (May 30, $26, ISBN 978-1-64622-146-2) reflects on the author’s coming out as gay and his conflicted relationship with masculinity in these meditations on telenovelas, drag queens, and Antonio Banderas.

Coffee House

This Wide Terraqueous World by Laird Hunt (Mar. 21, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56689-667-2). Hunt follows up his novel Zorrie with contemplations on Jane Bowles, childhood games, taxidermy, and denim.

Columbia Univ.

Freedom Reread by L. Gibson (Feb. 7, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-231-18893-7) considers Jonathan Franzen’s 2010 novel, Freedom , in light of the novelist’s polarizing public persona, juxtaposing the book with the works of George Eliot and Susan Sontag.

On Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: The First of a New Genus by Susan J. Wolfson (Apr. 25, $14.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-231-20625-9) studies how Wollstonecraft’s rhetorical and aesthetic strategies contribute to the impact of reading her feminist manifesto.

Uncle of the Year: And Other Debatable Triumphs by Andrew Rannells (May 16, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-44343-9). The Book of Mormon star shares his thoughts on the hollowness of traditional metrics of success in essays on the awards circuit, children, and perfectionism.

Incarnation and Metamorphosis: Can Literature Change Us? by David Mason (Mar. 7, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-58988-172-3) offers takes on Claudia Rankine, Tom Stoppard, and Sylvia Plath to probe literature’s capacity to influence readers.

The Loved Ones by Madison Davis (June 13, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-950539-77-2). Autobiographical pieces contemplate the deaths of four members of Davis’s family—by murder, car accident, illness, and combat.

Voyager: Constellations of Memory by Nona Fernández, trans. by Natasha Wimmer (Feb. 21, $15 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64445-217-2) takes the author’s mother’s illness as the impetus for meditations on Chilean democracy, memory, and astronomy.

Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You’re the F-ing Worst by Laura Belgray (June 13, $28, ISBN 978-0-306-82604-7) serves up dispatches about dating, falling for internet scams, and refusing responsibilities, from the TV writer.

Hanover Square

Adult Drama: And Other Essays by Natalie Beach (June 20, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-335-91402-6) expands the author’s viral New York magazine article about her contentious relationship with Instagrammer Caroline Calloway, and includes additional pieces on heartache, jeans, and existential crises.

You’re That Bitch: A Gay Cinderella Story by Bretman Rock (Feb. 14, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-358-69410-6) recounts episodes from the social media personality’s life, from growing up in the Philippines through living as a first-generation immigrant in Hawaii to his ascent to online fame. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

I Finally Bought Some Jordans by Michael Arceneaux (May 9, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-06-314041-7) follows up I Don’t Want to Die Poor with a collection of essays touching on dating in the age of social media and the obstacles to achieving success as a Black creative. 35,000-copy announced first printing.

Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture that Raised Me by Aisha Harris (May 2, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-324994-3). The cohost of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour muses on the art that has influenced her. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

Holding the Note: Writing on Music by David Remnick (May 23, $29, ISBN 978-1-4000-4361-3). The editor of the New Yorker brings together pieces on such musicians as Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker, and Paul McCartney. 60,000-copy announced first printing.

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer (Apr. 25, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-65511-4) grapples with the relationship between the audience and the works of such problematic artists as Ernest Hemingway, V.S. Naipaul, and Woody Allen. 35,000-copy announced first printing.

New Directions

War Diary by Yevgenia Belorusets, trans. by Greg Nissan (Mar. 7, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8112-3480-1), collects the Ukrainian author’s writings on living in Kyiv during the Russian invasion.

New York Review Books

Affinities: On Art and Fascination by Brian Dillon (Mar. 28, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68137-726-1) examines what attracts individuals to the art they hold dear, drawing on insights from Goethe, Baudelaire, and Walter Benjamin.

Alexandra Petri’s U.S. History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) by Alexandra Petri (Apr. 11, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-324-00643-5). The Washington Post humor columnist takes on U.S. history via a survey of imaginary documents.

In Search of a Beautiful Freedom: New and Selected Essays by Farah Jasmine Griffin (Mar. 28, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-393-35577-2) anthologizes the comparative literature professor’s writings on Malcolm X, Hurricane Katrina, and bans of Toni Morrison’s Beloved .

Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera by Jena Friedman (Apr. 18, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-982178-28-4). Comedian Friedman opines on the post-#MeToo era, giving celebrities second chances, and joking about controversial topics.

Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter by Gary Younge (Apr. 18, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68219-385-3) brings together the journalist’s reports on Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Hurricane Katrina, and the night Obama first won the presidency.

The Manifesto of Herman Melville by Barry Sanders (June 6, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68219-399-0) suggests Moby Dick should be read as a warning about the destruction of nature.

Penguin Books

Watch Your Language: Visual Essays, Sketches, and Meditations on a Century of Poetry by Terrance Hayes (July 25, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-14-313773-3). The National Book Award winner offers an illustrated critical meditation on the last 100 years of poetry.

In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not So Post-Racial America by Brianna Holt (Apr. 11, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-18639-8) brings together autobiographical essays about surviving the bigotry aimed at American Black women.

Princeton Univ.

Impermanent Blackness: The Making and Unmaking of Interracial Literary Culture in Modern America by Korey Garibaldi (Feb. 14, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-691-21190-9) details Black-white partnerships in commercial publishing in the first half of the 20th century.

Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques by Grace Elisabeth Lavery (May 30, $29.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-691-24393-1) examines written depictions of gender transition, with a focus on the works of George Eliot and Sigmund Freud.

Random House

Letters to a Writer of Color , edited by Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro (Mar. 7, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-44941-7). Mohammed Hanif, Madeleine Thien, Amitava Kumar, and other writers of color from across the globe reflect on the politics and craft of composing literature.

Without Model: Parva Aesthetica by Theodor W. Adorno, trans. by Wieland Hoban (Apr. 5, $24.50, ISBN 978-1-80309-218-8), compiles essays previously unavailable in English by the German philosopher on how art should change with the times.

Simon & Schuster

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things by Katy Kelleher (Apr. 25, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-98217-935-9). Paris Review contributor Kelleher highlights the seedy processes and ingredients that produce such beautiful objects as lipstick, perfume, and silk.

Univ. of New Mexico

A Description of Acquaintance: The Letters of Laura Riding and Gertrude Stein, 1927–1930 , edited by Logan Esdale and Jane Malcolm (June 1, $65, ISBN 978-0-8263-6489-0), compiles and contextualizes correspondence from the poets’ brief friendship.

Univ. of Pennsylvania

Bad Blood: Staging Race Between Early Modern England and Spain by Emily Weissbourd (June 20, $55, ISBN 978-1-5128-2290-8) studies early modern depictions of race in the plays and fictions of Spanish and English writers.

Capitalism and the Senses , edited by Regina Lee Blaszczyk and David Suisman (June 13, $65, ISBN 978-1-5128-2420-9), serves up essays on how capitalism has changed and exploited everyday sensory experience.

The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race by Farah Karim-Cooper (June 6, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-48937-6) examines how Shakespeare approached race throughout his plays and poetry.

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10 Essays To Read Again in 2023

A list of our staff’s favorite essays from the past year.

Hello, New Lines readers,

We hope you’re enjoying a much-needed holiday break. We have a lot in store for 2023, particularly the launch of our print edition. In the meantime, as has become tradition, we wanted to share with you a list of our staff’s favorite essays from the past year. We hope you’ll find something of interest in this eclectic collection of stories.

Wishing you a Happy New Year from the New Lines team!

The Day My Wartime Cat Went Missing, by Rasha Elass

Riada asimovic akyol, strategic initiatives editor.

Many of my close friends tell me that, despite my irrational fear of cats, I’d be a perfect “cat person,” once I dared to confront those fears. I’ve acknowledged the joy and glow in their eyes, when my friends speak of their pets. I’ve observed such bonds curiously and in a more mindful way in the last few years, especially after becoming a mother, responsible for someone else’s life. 

The essay “The Day My Wartime Cat Went Missing” was published early in 2022, and was an instant classic. Our Editorial Director, Rasha Elass, writes masterfully about her adventures with adopted cats Pumpkin and Gremlin, whom she first met in Abu Dhabi. She beautifully depicts how they survived a tough war, and the different challenges they’ve been through in the Middle East and the United States. She shares her genuine love and nurturing care, as well as her dread at the possibility of losing them, whether in peacetime or war. 

The essay is a gorgeous reminder of the bonds that matter. Check it out for yourself.

How I Survived a Syrian Gulag, by Jaber Baker

Rasha al aqeedi, middle east deputy editor.

The terms “dictatorship,” “fascism,” “authoritarianism” and “totalitarianism” are thrown around today to describe various ruling systems in the world to such an extent that they have lost their actual meaning. Inconveniences such as losing access to a social media platform are compared to the conditions that led to the Holocaust, while wearing a pandemic-imposed mask is akin to living in a gulag. 

The Syrian author Jaber Baker takes us on a dark journey through his time in an actual gulag run by Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party. For me personally, the essay is a masterclass in storytelling and struck more chords and triggered more memories of my childhood and adolescence in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq than I wish it had. The true experiences and traumas of dictatorship face the threat of being drowned out by the noises of victimhood culture. While no one has a monopoly on trauma, Syrians have the right to tell the stories of their torture and suffering. It is a reminder that not all injustices are created equal. 

The Last of the Bougainvillea Years, by Zeina Hashem Beck

Erin clare brown, north africa editor.

When faced with an impending move to Paris from Dubai in search of more stability for her family, poet Zeina Hashem Beck is suddenly filled with the pangs of loss — not for the Emirates, where she’d lived since 2006, but for her home in Lebanon. She explores this abstract sense of displacement and longing in her gorgeously crafted essay, written in a pitch-perfect prose that carries the music of poetry through her attempts to sort her belongings, prepare her children, and reassure herself that the displacement is the right call. Through it all Hashem Beck mourns the impending loss of her bougainvillea vines, whose clouds of pink blossoms and wicked thorns come to symbolize in turns her beloved hometown, her Mediterranean identity and in ways, the author herself. 

It’s a beautiful meditation on loss and longing, displacement and belonging that reminds us that when we are the right amount of thirsty, we blossom.

What Ukraine Means for Lithuanians Haunted by Soviet Past, by Inga Rudzinskaite-Colman

Amie ferris-rotman, global news editor.

When reading this essay, one feels that an entire generation of Eastern Europeans is speaking, in a single, defiant voice, suddenly with renewed urgency. The globe is so focused on Russia’s horrific assault on Ukraine, and the grim atrocities the Russian military commits practically every day, that we often forget, or perhaps do not realize, the impact the war has on Moscow’s previous victims. In this essay, the analyst Inga Rudzinskaite-Colman, who was born and raised in Vilnius, dives into complicated issues like collective trauma and self-identity. She tells us, in poignant detail, how she and her fellow countrymen and women strived for decades to disassociate themselves from Russia and their Soviet past. But belonging to the Western “club” has also meant uncomfortable compromises, like being “Russiasplained” to. Read this beautifully written essay to peer into the new realities facing the Baltics, Poland and other countries once in Russia’s orbit, who are now finding themselves united by survival. 

Rushdie Is India’s Forgotten Child of Midnight, by Pratik Kanjilal

Surbhi gupta, south asia editor.

Earlier this year, when Salman Rushdie was attacked before his talk in western New York, his supposed safe haven, much of the discussion in the media and reports in the news cycle focused on the politics of that infamous fatwa by the Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the writer’s death and its repercussions on the Muslim world. Yet, despite the fact Rushdie has roots in India and the subcontinent has been a constant source of inspiration for his writing, I could find no essay that delved into this relationship and work with South Asia — before this one.

While many were focused on the backlash against Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses,” the South Asian connection in the story was being overlooked. The first protests against the book happened not in Iran but in Pakistan, and this prompted the Indian government to ban its import from the U.K. It was, indeed, in a review in an Indian magazine that the Ayatollah is said to have first learned of the book. That’s why I loved this essay by Pratik Kanjilal, a veteran journalist and books editor in India, who has followed Rushdie’s journey closely through the years and was the best person to write it. He packs a lot into this essay: He writes about Rushdie, critiques his work, discusses what his Booker Prize wins meant for English writing in India, his relationship with India and Pakistan, and the irony of the attack, coinciding as it did with the 75th Independence Day celebrations in India. 

Faith and Vengeance: the Islamic State’s War in Afghanistan, by Fazelminallah Qazizai and Chris Sands

Tam hussein, associate editor.

This piece tells the story of the rise of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), and its fall and rebirth, told through the character of Abu Omar Khorasani, “the most feared and despised prisoner in Directorate 40.” It takes you on a journey from the Afghan Jihad in the 1980s all the way to the present. I love deep dives and investigations. This particular piece is very original and will no doubt populate the citations of many books on the topic for years to come. To produce an essay of such quality requires a supportive editorial team and journalists willing to follow the story all the way. For me, that is embodied in this investigation. When I read it, I can almost see the legwork and local knowledge put in by Fazelminallah Qazizai. I see the crisp writing style of Qazizai’s co-author Chris Sands, the beautiful artwork of Joanna Andreasson and the background work that the editorial team puts in months before publication. And so it’s not just an enjoyable and interesting read, it’s what our managing editor Ola Salem says the best essays are — a work of art.

When Uganda Expelled Its Asian Population in 1972, Britain Tried to Exclude Them, by Saima Nasar

Kwangu liwewe, africa editor.

When I read this essay, it reminded me of the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story. For five decades, the narrative about the expulsion of Uganda’s Asians has been that they went to Britain, were welcomed there and lived as refugees, then successfully assimilated into society and have contributed to all spheres of British life.

This essay puts the spotlight on how the narrative changed from unwanted Asian immigrants to one of a humanitarian response, when the plight of Asians became international news and Britain feared a backlash. The writer Saima Nasar lifts the lid on this narrative and tells the story of how, in actual fact, the Asians were British passport holders and were initially not welcome in Britain.

Nasar writes, “While Ugandan Asians have no doubt shaped Britain’s economic, political and socio-cultural landscapes, it is important to avoid celebratory narratives that overlook histories of struggle and discrimination.” 

It is an important essay that challenges society to re-examine historical narratives.

A Film Critic Reflects on the Artistic Journeys and Vision of the Late French Director Jean-Luc Godard, by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Danny postel, politics editor.

When I saw the news on Sept. 13 that the legendary filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard had died, I immediately called Jonathan Rosenbaum, the longtime film critic for my local alt-weekly newspaper, the Chicago Reader, and the author of multiple books on world cinema. Rosenbaum had written extensively about Godard’s films over the years and had interviewed the grand poobah of French cinema’s New Wave movement on more than one occasion. I was thrilled that Rosenbaum agreed to write for us, despite being unfamiliar with New Lines (he later informed me that Sight and Sound, the magazine of the British Film Institute, also asked him to write something on Godard but we got to him first). 

In the essay, he discusses several of Godard’s films — “Breathless” (1960), “Alphaville” (1965), “Tout Va Bien” (1972), “Every Man for Himself” (1980), “Passion” (1982), “Nouvelle Vague” (1990) and “Histoire(s) du Cinéma,” an eight-part experimental video series made between 1988 and 1998 — but it’s far from a survey of the late director’s filmography. Instead, it’s a deeply personal meditation on his poetic vision and colossal global influence, and on the relationship between art and commercial success and failure. “Marketplace value has little or nothing to do with the love of art,” Rosenbaum writes, and “there’s no way of gauging the latter via the former, especially insofar as the intensity of the love and the qualities of the audience experiencing and expressing it aren’t even remotely quantifiable.” Godard once said to Rosenbaum: “I like to think of myself as an airplane, not an airport.” Reflecting on that quip, Rosenbaum writes that “vehicles that take us places, and the destinations of those who make them don’t have to be the same as the destinations of those who climb into those vehicles.”

Between Two Rivers, Between Two Myths, by Sophus Helle

Lydia wilson, culture editor.

I wanted to choose a history essay for two reasons: It’s one of the genres that we do particularly well and, second, this type of long-form history is not given much space in other outlets. Our history essays are always deep-dive explorations of stories from the past from experts on the subject, showing us something new about the world, whether a new perspective on a familiar topic or a previously hidden gem. 

“Between Two Rivers,” by the Mesopotamian scholar Sophus Helle, exemplifies what we’re trying to do. It is based on deep expertise, exploring the identities of societies going back millennia in the territory now called Iraq. Helle looks at the labels these cultures gave themselves and were given by later invaders or historians. But it does not only tell the story of the historical material. Crucially, it explains why these facts, controversies and debates about old identities are relevant today, and the obfuscation of the past realities on the ground in Iraq does not serve its present inhabitants. History matters, and this essay brings that home. 

An Exile Returns to Find Syria Changed Forever, by Nizar Kinaan

Faisal al yafai, international editor.

It’s been a year of war — as too many of the past few years have been — this time dominated in Europe by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the magazine, we’ve certainly published a lot about the Ukraine war, but we’ve also kept a close eye on other conflicts.

This essay by Nizar Kinaan, a pseudonym for obvious reasons, is one of those, revisiting the still-simmering Syrian conflict. The author returned to the coastal city of Latakia after years away and found a city, and country, drastically changed by the war. We called the essay “No Country for Young Men” because of the profound changes in gender roles wrought by the war.

“‘Where are the young men?’ I asked my friends in the cafe bar we were drinking in. ‘They are dead, in the army or they left like I should have done.’”

“The taboos against women working in certain specific jobs have definitely been broken,” wrote Kinaan, quoting a Syrian woman who said, “I am not saying all taboos have been completely shattered … but things have definitely shifted. Now women can work in most jobs, stay out late, and be a little bit more independent.”

Many will applaud that change, but the reasons that brought it about have destabilized the entire society. This is what makes Kinaan’s encounter with Latakia so interesting; he doesn’t judge what has happened by any moral standard except that of Syria itself. He doesn’t applaud changes in isolation without understanding what it took to make them change.

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Rwanda’s Younger Generation Still Deals With the Legacy of Genocide

In portugal’s rural north, communities are resisting lithium mining, the return to circassia, remembering sergei parajanov, the bard of the caucasus, against tyranny: two stories told in pictures warn us to fight on, looking for the roots of today’s germany, sign up to our newsletter.

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Author Interviews

Writer sam irby bears her soul – again – with new essay collection 'quietly hostile'.

Juana Summers

Ashley Brown

Brianna Scott

Writer Sam Irby talks about her newest collection of essays, Quietly Hostile.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Samantha Irby is an essayist and humorist - the latter of which was painfully obvious when we started chatting.

SAMANTHA IRBY: Like, all my friends' parents are going to be so excited (laughter).

SUMMERS: I think it's a compliment that your friends' parents are listening to NPR. I hope it's a compliment (laughter).

IRBY: It is absolutely a compliment that, like, every Prius in Evanston, Ill., has NPR on (laughter) all the time.

SUMMERS: I feel so called out right now.

IRBY: (Laughter) No, no. I promise you - these are the people I grew up wanting to be like.

SUMMERS: (Laughter).

IRBY: So, you know, by - not osmosis, by whatever - the transitive property, I want to be like you.

IRBY: So...

SUMMERS: Super polite but quietly hostile is how Samantha Irby describes herself in her newest book, also titled "Quietly Hostile." It's her fourth collection of essays in a career that's taken her from blogger to bestselling author to writing for Hollywood shows including the "Sex And The City" revival and "Just Like That..." Irby's new book touches on that show, but also relationships, Dave Matthews Band deep cuts and some very personal anecdotes. And I asked Irby to describe her writing for those who might not be familiar.

IRBY: OK, I like to warn people who haven't read my books before that they are disgusting. And I think, you know, people are like, oh, no, they're not - no, no, no. They're disgusting. It's a lot of bathroom stuff that's funny. A lot of decaying body stuff. I do make it all funny, but I also kind of, like, revel in the grossness.

SUMMERS: You do write in this really funny and really spot-on way about aging. How do you feel about getting older?

IRBY: I think my body - like, I have Crohn's disease. And I have some arthritis that is associated with the Crohn's disease, and I always just feel like a nightmare. So aging - the indignity of it - I've already been prepared for, right? You know how everyone's like, you know, when you hit 30, you're going to feel good about yourself. Your life is going to change. That didn't happen for me, and it didn't happen for me at 40. But I hear that 50 is when you start to feel comfortable with yourself and, like, assured of your place in the world. So I'm looking forward to apparently the complete lobotomy that happens when you wake up on your 50th birthday.

SUMMERS: OK, so I have to tell you - you put into words in this book something that I think a lot about all the time but I have never heard anybody articulate before.

IRBY: Ooh (laughter).

SUMMERS: It is about the complexity of feeding your spouse's kids. And I am also a stepparent. I wonder if it's OK if I read this part of the essay.

IRBY: Please.

SUMMERS: You wrote...

(Reading) I will pick up food from a dark and foreboding alley if it means I don't have to cook for children whose constant disapproval causes me physical pain. I'd rather listen to you calling me the C-word than hear one of them say, can I be excused? - in an annoyed tone while pushing away from the elaborate meal I slaved over to go eat stale Fritos and drink room-temperature Arizona in front of the Nintendo in their bedroom.

IRBY: (Laughter) It's the truth. I - (laughter) nothing is more crushing - like, they - if you ask them if they like your clothes, they do not (laughter). If you ask them if they like the music you put on, they do not. And it's sad because, unfortunately, for me, I'm a person who, like, seeks validation...

SUMMERS: Yep.

IRBY: ...Even from a kid, which is maybe the most embarrassing thing I could ever say. But, like, the meal stuff - it's like, I diced. And I chopped, and I sauteed. And, I mean, I don't need them to throw a parade when I serve it, but I kind of want them to throw a parade, right?

SUMMERS: You also write about your parents in this book, and I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about them and what your relationship with them was like.

IRBY: My parents both died separately. I was 18. My mom had multiple sclerosis, which is devastating. My dad was, like, a ne'er-do-well. They had gotten divorced when I was 4, and he was kind of in and out of my life. I'm like, I don't know them - you know? - 'cause your parents don't really show you their adult self. At least mine didn't. And so I think my specific, like, grief - oh, God, what word can I use other than journey? - experience has been, like, God bless them for getting together and having me. The situation is sad, but I am not sad. Does that make sense?

SUMMERS: It does. I mean, the thing that you wrote in your book about both of your parents that really stuck with me was the part where you ask yourself this kind of unanswerable question about whether it's bad that you don't miss them and whether you're supposed to keep a candle burning for someone whose voice you don't remember. And I mean, I thought about that a lot...

IRBY: Yeah.

SUMMERS: ...Because my mother is still alive. I haven't spoken to my father in decades at this point. And people always ask me if I feel bad about that. And it's like, am I supposed to? I feel like I'm living my life, you know?

IRBY: Right. Yeah. I mean, I think people who say things like that assume - and I don't mean to say anything about your dad 'cause I don't know him, but my own dad...

SUMMERS: He sounds a lot like yours. He sounds a lot like yours.

IRBY: (Laughter) OK. OK, good. So, like, people assume you had, like, good parents who were sweet and took care of you, and it's like, I didn't. So we had our time. I cried a lot in my teens. And then, like, you got to keep moving.

SUMMERS: OK. I'm going to make a hard right turn here.

SUMMERS: You touch on so much in this book about love for Dave Matthews, but you also write about porn and self-pleasure. And there's even a whole list of things and places that you have peed over the past few years. So...

IRBY: (Laughter).

SUMMERS: ...I am curious - in putting this book together, was there ever any moment where you looked at something you wrote and were just like, nah, I - that one - that cannot go in this book. Did you ever have a moment like that?

IRBY: No because - I say this all the time, so I hope nobody's heard me say this before. But I truly - like, when you write about something personal, you have to be OK with it, like, being on a billboard or being on the news - right? - because, for the rest of your life, people who have read your work will, like, quote that back at you. You know, not thinking about how people on the whole are going to react makes it very easy to just say whatever I'm going to say. And then, as soon as the thing is done, I immediately send it to my editor so that I can't (laughter) take it back or waste the words or whatever. It's fine, you know? You want to talk about it? Great. You're disgusted by it and want to skip ahead? That's fine, too. I turn it in without thinking, and I'm like, well, it's in the world's hands. There's nothing I can do.

SUMMERS: Author Samantha Irby.

SUMMERS: Her latest book is "Quietly Hostile." Samantha, thank you so much.

IRBY: Thank you for having me. This was a dream. You're the best.

SUMMERS: You're the best.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAVE MATTHEWS BAND SONG, "ANTS MARCHING")

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Best of 2023: Personal Essays

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Personal essays are as much about the readers as the writers. While all the essays in this list demonstrate exceptional writing—each piece struck a distinct chord with the editor who chose it. For Seyward, it was an essay on grief. For Krista, a piece on community experience. Peter was drawn to video game writing ( Red Dead Redemption 2 !), Cheri to the immigrant experience and caring for loved ones, and Carolyn to the fear of missed opportunities as we age (and a vicious jungle tick).

We hope you find a piece to resonate with you as you read these beautiful personal stories.

Ahead of Time

Kamran Javadizadeh | The Yale Review | June 12, 2023 | 3,285 words    

Grief is unpredictable. Sometimes it stabs you, sometimes it suffocates you; when it isn’t making you weep or scream, it’s leaving you numb. Grief is also unfathomable: we cannot see, much less reach, the edges of the permanent absence of someone we love. “Grief may be the knowledge … that the future won’t be like the past,” Kamran Javadizadeh writes in this exquisite essay about the death of his sister, Bita. “Like water to the page, it spreads in all directions, it thins the surface, it touches what you cannot touch.” Javadizadeh reflects on his grief through the lens of poetry he encountered during the experience of losing Bita: a volume of Langston Hughes he located in their shared childhood bedroom; a copy of  The Dead and the Living  by Sharon Olds, filled with Bita’s notes from college; a Hafez verse that Bita texted to him one day. The best poetry is not unlike grief: it is vast, complex, elusive. And in reading verse, Javadizadeh shows, we can find lessons for mourning. I’ve thought about this essay countless times since I read it last summer, and I suspect I will reread it many times in the years to come. — SD

The Butchering

Jake Skeets | Emergence Magazine | June 22, 2023 | 3,901 words

Consider what it means to truly feel full—with a full stomach and a full heart—when your physical and spiritual hungers are satiated for a time. Diné poet Jake Skeets mulls these layers of resonance in his beautiful essay “The Butchering,” in which he prepares to kill a sheep for “the Kinaałda. . . .loosely translated as the Diné puberty ceremony.” For Skeets and members of his Indigenous community, story is wonderfully entangled with preparing the food that will nourish his family both physically and spiritually. Community members teach and learn interchangeably, switching roles naturally in a space of safety, free from shame. Skeets meditates on the open mindset needed to fully participate; sometimes he is a child, earning knowledge passed on from family and sometimes he is an uncle, offering an example for others. There’s a slowness to savor in Skeets’ writing, a gentle quickening you observe in the essay as he educates you on what it takes to sustain his community and their Indigenous way of life. “The next time I butcher I’ll have my own story to tell, my own memory to share, knowledge to offer. One more voice to add to the chorus on those nights when you’re out in the desert under the night sky, no sound for miles, just the moon and the ground beneath you, reminding you it’s all real. That and your full stomach. Generations heard through wind, the air, the stirring gleaming stars. All that knowledge, all that story, all that beauty,” he writes. Be sure to make time for this piece; it will ignite your sense of wonder and spark your curiosity, feeding you in a way that’s truly satisfying. — KS

We’re More Ghosts Than People

Hanif Abdurraqib  |  The Paris Review  |  October 16, 2023  |  3,922 words

Not long after I started at  Longreads , I put together a reading list  detailing some of my favorite pieces of video game writing  over the previous decade. If people could enjoy reviews of movies they haven’t seen, I reasoned, then they could do the same with gaming criticism and journalism—even if they’d never held a controller. That conviction hasn’t wavered in the years since; however, this year brought a piece powerful enough to vault back through time and land on that list. Hanif Abdurraqib’s  Paris Review  essay (which also appears in the newly published collection  Critical Hits ) is nominally about the experience of playing  Red Dead Redemption 2 , Rockstar Games’ critically acclaimed title set in the American West in 1899. The word “nominally” carries more weight than usual, though. In Abdurraqib’s able hands, the game instead becomes a portal to grief and salvation, futility and loss. Some characters can’t be redeemed by virtue of their programming. Others can. The trajectory of the character of  you  is another story altogether. “If there is a place of judgment where I must stand and plead my case for a glorious and abundant afterlife, I hope that whoever hears me out is interested in nuances, but who’s to say,” Abdurraqib writes. “I don’t think about it, until I do.” As with the very best of arts writing, this meditation teases apart its medium’s limitations to find the universal truths and questions embedded within. No virtual revolver necessary. — PR

A Mother’s Exchange for Her Daughter’s Future

Jiayang Fan | The New Yorker | June 5, 2023 | 6,197 words

Jiayang Fan was 25 when her mother was diagnosed with ALS. She writes: “The child became the mother’s future, and the mother became the child’s present, taking up residence in her brain, blood, and bones.” This was the first personal piece Fan wrote after her mother’s death; it’s a devastating tale of the immigrant experience in America, of illness, of the intimate and complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. Fan’s descriptions of her bedridden mother range from exquisite to grim to satisfyingly peculiar. She is “shipwrecked in her own body,” with skin like “rice paper” that will inevitably tear. Even a line detailing how literal shit excretes out of her mother’s body—a “rivulet” down the “limp marble of her thigh”—manages to read beautifully. Fan writes with vulnerability about caring for an elderly loved one, love and sacrifice, the intertwining of two lives, and the story about them that’s ultimately written. I had to pause and collect myself a number of times as I thought about my own aging mother, and the decisions made over the course of our lives that have made us who we are. “One creature, disassembled into two bodies,” Fan writes of their shared life. This is extraordinary writing that hit me in a spot deep within. — CLR

How I Survived a Wedding in a Jungle That Tried to Eat Me Alive

Melissa Johnson | Outside | July 18, 2023 | 4,273 words

A key sentence in this essay goes as follows, “Behold my nightmare: a tick has bitten my vagina.” The incident—relayed with “the gravitas of Obi-Wan Kenobi describing the destruction of planet Alderaan”—occurs in 2017, while Melissa Johnson is enduring a five-day trek in northern Guatemala to attend the wedding of two ex-military women. (She reflects on how during the days of Trump America, the middle of the jungle felt a safer spot for such nuptials.) Johnson embarks on this quest fresh from harvesting her eggs. Single at the age of 39, she is not only wrestling ticks from her “holy garden” but with her fear of missing out on love and motherhood. Trudging along the soggy trails, Johnson dwells on her cloudy future with trepidation. But, by the time she is released from the jungle’s insect-infested innards, she has come to terms with the fact that she is an adventurer—someone comfortable with the unknown. This piece has many layers: an adventure story, a character study of people with names such as “Tent Dawg,” and a thoughtful take on aging and motherhood. It’s also just plain funny. I loved going through the jungle with Johnson, and I also loved the last sentence of her bio:  She had a baby girl in March.  — CW

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The best New Statesman Ideas essays of 2023

Our pick of the finest writing from the past year.

By New Statesman

The rise of the new tech right Quinn Slobodian A cult – one that worships a genetically determined meritocracy has Silicon Valley in a chokehold. Slobodian unpacks the racial science of IQ, and the growing far-right threat of a future shaped by high-tech-hierarchy.

The new politics of time Hettie O’Brien Jenny Odell’s  Saving Time  is concerned with bewildering disjunctions. A recursive, impressionistic discussion of clocks, capitalism and the climate crisis, her book is composed of anecdotes, cut-and-pasted histories and cultural criticism. How should we spend our hours in the age of burnout? Arguably not by reading Odell’s frustrating new book, Saving Time .

What it means to be Jewish now Various Writers With anti-Semitism rising and divisions on the left over the Hamas-Israel war, 17 writers reflect on being Jewish now.

Settling scores with God: Leszek Kolakowski at the end of history Madoc Cairns An orphan. A Marxist. A Catholic-conservative. Leszek Kolakowski holds a 50-year-career as one of Europe’s leading, and most controversial public intellectuals. In conversation, he unpacks a troubled history: of paradox, of collapse, and of transcendence; of finding belonging in belief, and being haunted by the absolute.

The realists were right about the war in Ukraine Lily Lynch Far from the flashy, hope filled “David vs Goliath” narratives of resistance and reclamation of its first months, the Ukraine-Russia war has slowed to a drivel – and alongside it domestic morale, foreign support and US funding. Initially ignored warnings of Ukrainian “false hope” were not so incorrect, Lynch suggests, as she questions what version (if any) of Ukraine’s future is actually attainable.

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Going Native Oliver Eagleton People who study cults sometimes end up joining them. Has this fate befallen Matthew Goodwin, one of Britain’s most visible scholars of the hard right? Eagleton looks at how Goodwin became part of the right-populist movement he once sought to explain.

Who is afraid of Martin Heidegger? Lyndsey Stonebridge In the rootless world of the 1920s, Heidegger’s ideas about Being (with a capital B, signifying the full meaning of human existence) ripped up the ground of philosophy. The truth exists only in our Being. “Being-there” – “ Dasein ”, in Heidegger’s distinctive terminology – is what matters; there in history, gliding on nothingness, with no other certain knowledge than that of our own death. There is no plot to follow, save the “hidden primordiality” of Being itself. This essay looks at why the most radioactive philosopher of the 20th century still speaks to us.

The New Age of Tragedy Robert D Kaplan, John Gray and Helen Thompson For this wide-ranging exchange, we asked Kaplan, the  Cambridge  political economist Helen Thompson and the philosopher John Gray to explore what we are calling this new age of tragedy, and how societies might navigate and endure the gathering storms.

Gramsci in Florida Alberto Toscano While talk of a “Gramscian vanguard” is largely a conspiratorial fabrication of the right, it could also serve as a spur for a somewhat rudderless left to reflect on what hegemony might look like today, on what it would take to become the threat to capitalism, patriarchy and white nationalism that the right already takes it to be.

Arno J Mayer’s 20th Century Enzo Traverso The American historian Arno J Mayer belongs to an extraordinary generation of German-speaking Jewish scholars – George L Mosse, Raul Hilberg, Peter Gay and Fritz Stern among others – who were born in Europe between the end of the First World War and Hitler’s rise to power, reaching their maturity during the Second World War. The cataclysms of the 20th century forged their mental  habitus  and gave them a sharp sense of  history . Mayer helped transform the writing of history – and with it our understanding of the modern world.

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New Essay Topics for 2023—and How to Approach Them

After years of relative consistency in their essay prompts, US colleges began shaking up their essay prompts in 2020—and this year, that trend has continued, with many schools introducing brand-new essay prompts for 2023. We’ve noticed a few trends in how colleges are changing their essay prompts; here’s our take on the new developments.

Diversity and Flexibility

This year’s essay changes tend to boil down to three themes: flexibility, diversity, and community engagement. Colleges are showing a greater interest than ever in how students’ life experiences have shaped what they’ll contribute to the class—and in the interest of learning that, they’re offering broader essay prompts that allow more room for creative topics. 

Princeton is a great case study for this. This year, they’ve removed their essay prompt about difficult conversations and replaced it with this one:

Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you? (500 words or fewer)

Provided the student frames their story correctly and pays attention to the second half of the prompt (what classmates will learn from them), there are very few topics that cannot be discussed for this question. We love that it gives students the freedom to share their favorite life experience or elaborate on the community they grew up in—and to do so in 500 words of detail. Choosing your best life experience (that you didn’t write about in the Common App personal statement) means you can draw on material from other applications, expanding your best essay from another school rather than writing a new one from scratch. This means the question may require less time to answer than its predecessor, even though the word count is longer. 

Many other schools have introduced shorter versions of this prompt: For instance, UVA has added:

What about your background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA? (300 words)

While these prompts are shorter than Princeton’s, they are fundamentally similar. You have a lot of freedom to tell your best story to admission officers, but you should also explicitly discuss how other students will benefit when you share your experience with them. 

Community Engagement

Another popular new essay topic is community engagement: Colleges seem particularly interested in students who are active in their communities and seek not just to succeed personally, but make a broader impact on society. This has been true for years, but many schools are now introducing essays on this topic (some mandatory). Here are some examples:

Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your participation helped to change or shape the community for the better. (Emory) 

Reflect on a social or community issue that deeply resonates with you. Why is it important to you, and how have you been involved in addressing or raising awareness about it? (Boston University)

We recommend approaching this topic with a personal touch. Reflect on community issues that have touched you or someone close to you—for example, issues facing particular racial and cultural communities, genders, or sexual orientations. This gives you an opportunity to not just recap a service or activism activity, but also share a bit about your personal life outside of school and extracurriculars. 

Don’t be afraid to define “social or community issue” broadly. Many students will focus on communities related to racial, cultural, or sexual identities, but workplaces, school clubs, religious congregations, towns, geographic regions, and families are also communities. You can also think bigger—issues like environmental sustainability affect the entire global community, and this is also a valid way to approach a community prompt. Having a story that’s interesting, original, and deeply reflective is the key to succeeding on these prompts—and that’s possible with any community.

With so many schools changing their requirements, this is a tumultuous year for college admissions, with many unknowns. However, one thing is certain: Essays will be more important than ever as schools stop looking at factors like SAT scores, race, and legacy status.

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Reach out to us to discuss how we can help your essay shine!

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New essay collections.

Have you ever read an essay collection? I turn to essay collections when I want to read, but need something shorter than a novel or a nonfiction book. I also find them helpful when I’m not in the mood for fiction, but want to read something . There’s a time and place for any type of reading and sometimes you just need an essay collection to cleanse your palate (at least I do)!

When reading essays, I have noticed that each one is self-contained. They take a special type of craft and discipline to cultivate a book theme and essays that surround it. Each collection of essays is its own work of art.

Below I have gathered a list of essay collections published in 2023. The descriptions have been provided by the publisher and/or author.

_______________________________

Samantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts.

Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now—anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by.

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience’s relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

“There are stories that must be told.”

Acclaimed novelist and scholar Daniel Black has spent a career writing into the unspoken, fleshing out, through storytelling, pain that can’t be described.

Now, in his debut essay collection, Black gives voice to the experiences of those who often find themselves on the margins. Tackling topics ranging from police brutality to the AIDS crisis to the role of HBCUs to queer representation in the black church, Black on Black celebrates the resilience, fortitude, and survival of black people in a land where their body is always on display.

As Daniel Black reminds us, while hope may be slow in coming, it always arrives, and when it does, it delivers beyond the imagination. Propulsive, intimate, and achingly relevant, Black on Black is cultural criticism at its openhearted best.

The first wound for all of us who are classified as “black” is empire.

In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life.

This paradigm-shifting essay collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of race and gender. Dangarembga recounts a painful separation from her parents as a toddler, connecting this experience to the ruptures caused in Africa by human trafficking and enslavement. She argues that, after independence, the ruling party in Zimbabwe only performed inclusion for women while silencing the work of self-actualized feminists. She describes her struggles to realize her ambitions in theater, film, and literature, laying out the long path to the publication of her novels.

At once philosophical, intimate, and urgent, Black and Female is a powerful testimony of the pervasive and long-lasting effects of racism and patriarchy that provides an ultimately hopeful vision for change. Black feminists are “the status quo’s worst nightmare.” Dangarembga writes, “our conviction is deep, bolstered by a vivid imagination that reminds us that other realities are possible beyond the one that obtains.”

A singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores profound questions about loss and the shapes of Black life that emerge in the wake. In a series of 248 notes that gather meaning as we read them, Christina Sharpe skillfully weaves artifacts from the past—public ones alongside others that are poignantly personal—with present realities and possible futures, intricately constructing an immersive portrait of everyday Black existence. The themes and tones that echo through these pages—sometimes about language, beauty, memory; sometimes about history, art, photography, and literature—always attend, with exquisite care, to the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life.

At the heart of Ordinary Notes is the indelible presence of the author’s mother, Ida Wright Sharpe. “I learned to see in my mother’s house,” writes Sharpe. “I learned how not to see in my mother’s house . . . My mother gifted me a love of beauty, a love of words.” Using these gifts and other ways of seeing, Sharpe steadily summons a chorus of voices and experiences to the page. She practices an aesthetic of “beauty as a method,” collects entries from a community of thinkers toward a “Dictionary of Untranslatable Blackness,” and rigorously examines sites of memory and memorial. And in the process, she forges a brilliant new literary form, as multivalent as the ways of Black being it traces.

For most of Jen Sookfong Lee’s life, pop culture was an escape from family tragedy and a means of fitting in with the larger culture around her. Anne of Green Gables promised her that, despite losing her father at the age of twelve, one day she might still have the loving family of her dreams. Princess Diana was proof that maybe there was more to being a good girl after all. And yet as Jen grew up, she began to recognize the ways in which pop culture was not made for someone like her—the child of Chinese immigrant parents who looked for safety in the invisibility afforded by embracing model minority myths.

Ranging from the unattainable perfection of Gwyneth Paltrow and the father-figure familiarity of Bob Ross, to the long shadow cast by The Joy Luck Club and the life lessons she has learned from Rihanna, Jen weaves together key moments in pop culture with stories of her own failings, longings, and struggles as she navigates the minefields that come with carving her own path as an Asian woman, single mother, and writer. And with great wit, bracing honesty, and a deep appreciation for the ways culture shapes us, she draws direct lines between the spectacle of the popular, the intimacy of our personal bonds, and the social foundations of our collective obsessions.

Do you have a favorite essay collection? Let us know in the comments.

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While We’re On the Subject: 10 of the Best Essay Collections

Liberty Hardy

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

View All posts by Liberty Hardy

One of the great things about being adult is that you only have to read the books you want to read now. No more assigned reading (unless you’re pursuing more education)! And while the word “essay” can conjure up images of homework, it’s actually just another really fun form of writing as a way to get information into your brain. An essay is a short piece of writing about a specific subject. That’s all. And just like all other writing, the subject possibilities are endless! There are so many amazing collections of essays to choose from. That’s why we’re helping you find a few great ones with this list of ten of the best essay collections.

These books cover a variety of topics, such as music, nature, race, and writing. Each of these are written by one particular author, but you can find essay collections with multiple contributors. The Best American Essays are a great place to start — the most recent one was guest edited by Alexander Chee, who has a book also listed below. He knows essays! I also highly recommend A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause by Shawn Wen. I had no idea how much I would love a small collection of essays about the famous mime Marcel Marceau until I picked it up. What a gem!

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Poet, essayist, and critic Abdurraqib’s first collection is an amazing jumping-off point if you’ve not read many essays. These are smart and thoughtful pieces, some about life as viewed through the lens of culture, such as his experience at a Carly Rae Jepsen show and his thoughts on attending concerts in the wake of the shootings in Paris. And some are about his experience as a Black man living in America. This collection was so successful, it got a new five-year anniversary cover, so you might also find this with a blue cover with a wolf in a red track suit.

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Baldwin’s famous essay collection about racism and the lives of Black people in America was written in the 1940s and early 1950s, at the start of the Civil Rights movement. A powerful writer and activist, Baldwin was one of the early writers discussing the violence and murder perpetrated against Black people. His essays exposed readers to police violence and racial injustice in a time before it was being discussed publicly and nationally.

How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee

Chee, who is a brilliant teacher as well as a published writer, discusses how the life of the writer is entangled in work in various ways. While explaining the importance of art and how it gives meaning to our lives, he revisits his own experiences, including the death of his father, the AIDS crisis, and writing his first novel Edinburgh .

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Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D’Ambrosio

D’Ambrosio tackles very different subjects in this collection of things that loiter in his brain, while weaving very personal, heartbreaking information into each one. There’s a discussion of the trial of jailed teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, the work of J.D. Salinger, a haunted house, weather, and more. It is also an examination of mental illness and suicide in his family.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Joan Didion

Like Baldwin, Didion is one of the most famous essayists in the American literary canon. This memorable book includes her sharp, original takes on John Wayne and Howard Hughes, as well as a look at her life growing up in California, and other memorable takes on places around the state.

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

And if you want a collection that will make you laugh out loud, pick up this (or any of Irby’s other books.) These are screamingly funny, honest essays about relationships, health and bodies, sex, pet ownership, family, and more. (A few more funny essayists to check out: Jenny Lawson, Helen Ellis, Phoebe Robinson, and Mary Laura Philpott.)

Small Wonder: Essays by Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver is one of the finest novelists of the last few decades, but did you know she also writes smart, touching nonfiction? Using nature as the underlying them in each one, Kingsolver probes our world, from mountains and trees, to the dangers of genetically modified foods, to what we owe the children of the world. It’s a collection about growth, literally and metaphorically.

Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver was an award-winning poet, and her immense, gorgeous talent for writing poetry is apparent in these beautiful, thoughtful essays. They examine her interest in nature and the world at large from a young age, and how the beauty she found around her influence her life and her work. Get ready to underline pretty much everything.

Let Me Clear My Throat: Essays by Elena Passarello

This is a fascinating collection about voices throughout popular culture, from an 18th century opera singer to Spaceballs to A Streetcar Named Desire . Passarello examines the sound and shape of the sounds that have contributed to the soundtracks of human lives. Equally fascinating is Animals Strike Curious Poses , her essay collection about famous animals throughout history.

Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan

And last but not least, another lesser-known gem. Pulphead is like a road trip in a book that covers pop culture, and events around America. Sullivan investigates a Christian rock festival, Real World alumni, the BP oil spill, Hurricane Katrina, and more. It’s an absorbing collection that belongs on the shelf of every essay lover.

For more essays to enrich your life, be sure to check out 100 Must-Read Essay Collections and Essay Collections That Make You Necessarily Uncomfortable .

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The New Black View

Two new Black essay & story collections to consider

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Collections and short stories are sustaining highlights in Black literary realms like they never have been before. Memoirist Athena Dixon’s essay collection, “The Loneliness Files” and award-winning author Lisa Teasely of “Fluid: Stories,” find vastly different entry points and avenues to reveal their unique views—whether it be through their own experiences or that of the characters they create. Collections are attractive to adventurous readers who want to delve into different story structures. Essays and short stories are quite underrated when it comes to the genius of post-modern Black writers. It is, though, exciting that more of these books are emerging as they can be just as poignant and pivotal as long-form books.

The Loneliness Files by Athena Dixon (Tin House)

Dixon’s searing vulnerability shines as she writes a collection of writings that grapple with her deep loneliness. While working a full time job from home, and living far away from family, Dixon begins to reflect on the choices she made that caused her to end up without any close relationships after stumbling onto a story of a woman who lay dead for three years in front of her television without so much of a true inquiry of her whereabouts or safety.

Fluid: Stories by Lisa Teasley (Cune)

“Fluid is a fascinating collage of short stories that explore a kaleidoscope of intriguing characters with vastly differing perspectives, as they navigate their lives within society’s most challenging contemporary issues,” writes Teasley’s publisher. Though vague in its description, the richness of the book’s content glimmers with unique and fascinating stories that explore the fabric of life in a way that can only be done by such an extolled writer as Lisa Teasley.

There is no question that Black writers are being uplifted and encouraged to express themselves in a myriad of ways. Collections are answers to the serial novels of the past, where pieces of novels were published and shared with the public. Though not always in chronological chapters like serials of old, new energy is being emitted into the short story and essay genre. It will be exciting to see what new collections will come next.

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A new essay collection highlights surprising relationships between humans and eggs

• Michael Patrick Brady

“Eggs are the ultimate shapeshifter,” says Lizzie Stark, author of the new essay collection, “Egg: A Dozen Ovatures.” Their versatility cannot be understated, both in the kitchen and outside of it. An essential part of many culinary traditions, they are also used liberally in various origin myths and are a fundamental tool in medical research and vaccine development. Eggs provide a convenient metaphor for life; new beginnings and fragility that make them a common trope in art and literature.

Stark sees the ubiquity of eggs as one of their superpowers. “I found that idea kind of exciting,” she says, “and as I was writing the book, I thought about how I could embody that through my writing by finding unexpected stories.” Stark’s 12 essays cover an impressive amount of ground and successfully highlight the surprising relationships between different human cultures and eggs.

Based in Massachusetts, Stark has made a name for herself writing immersive, investigative nonfiction that blends biography, research, and hands-on participation. Her first book, “Leaving Mundania,” involved three years of exploring the live-action role-playing community, and her second, “Pandora’s DNA,” was a forthright look at the history of the BRCA gene, using her own family as an example. As a carrier of the gene, Stark elected to have her ovaries removed at the age of 39 while she was writing “Egg.”

“It didn’t escape me that I chose to write a book about eggs when I was going through the process of having mine removed,” she says. “You don’t have to be Freud to see the connection there.” In one of the later essays, she writes, “Through the absence of my own eggs, I’ve come to understand them better and perhaps to love them even more.” These personal touches help elevate “Egg” into something more than just a collection of trivia.

There’s more to the humble egg than meets the eye, and, for Stark and her readers, this otherwise unassuming ovoid becomes an entrée into worlds both obscure and confounding. Throughout the book, eggs transcend their status as a source of life or nutrition, and become a vehicle for cutthroat capitalism, artistic expression and rapacious obsession.

From the inner workings of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which busts up rings of inventive, yet pitiably pathetic kleptomaniacal poachers in the UK to the Clowns International Egg Registry, which holds eggs bearing the unique makeup designs of prominent clowning performers throughout history on their shells, Stark is adept at finding eggs in weird places and providing a thorough and respectful account of the parties involved. Her profiles of Egg Registry artist Debbie Smith and RSPB detective Mark Thomas are informative and eye-opening. Every story is a window into a little niche that makes you marvel at how fascinating our world really is.

Stark says she had no shortage of compelling material to work with. “One of the big challenges of this book was cutting down the information,” says Stark. “Once you start looking into it, there are an astonishing array of egg stories. They are truly everywhere, and given how many wild stories I found, I’m surprised we aren’t talking about them more.”

Though each of the book’s essays has a singular, unifying theme, Stark can’t help but let them wander when necessary, chasing tangents or peppering in little bits of disconnected knowledge when the opportunity presents itself. “This is a typical story featuring eggs,” writes Stark. “We start with one thing, but end up with quite another.”

For Stark, eggs are first and foremost a reminder of home—her earliest egg memories involve learning how to cook them with her father. “It’s hard for me to talk about eggs without talking about my dad,” says Stark. “Eggs are really the origin point for my relationship with him.” While writing the book, Stark and her father spent hours in the kitchen, experimenting with different recipes while pontificating on what drives their pursuit of the perfect egg. “My interest in omelets grew because they are hard to make correctly,” her father told her. “If I could make them right every time, I’d probably be less interested in them.”

In one essay, we see Stark and her mother experimenting with the Ukrainian decorative art of pysanky, an old folk tradition almost eliminated during the Soviet era. “My mother is always up for some cute, decorative stuff,” says Stark. Their “clumsy attempts” don’t turn out as expected, but Stark found comfort in the process. “It’s my hope that people are inspired to get into their kitchens or their art studios,” says Stark. “I hope it sparks some fun and delight. I want people to have their own little episode of egg-based glee in these dark times.”

While the book’s cavalcade of fun facts and weird anecdotes is both enlightening and entertaining, where “Egg” really succeeds is in reminding us that even the simplest, most mundane objects may contain multitudes. We just have to be willing to slow down and look closely.

• New anthology explores the rich diversity of American English
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Family Guy 's Gary Janetti to Publish New Essay Collection About Adventures Abroad: ‘You’re Welcome’ (Exclusive)

The writer’s latest book delves into his experiences traveling abroad

 Benjamin Askinas, Harper

Gary Janetti is reflecting on the ups and downs of travel in a new book. The writer and producer, 58, has shared, exclusively with PEOPLE, that his new essay collection is on the way. We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay will be published this summer by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins. Janetti is taking readers on a romp through his worldwide travels in his latest publication. The writer will reflect on the “absurdity and glory” of his trips abroad, including a transformative stay at an Italian spa taken with his husband, celebrity stylist Brad Goreski , a family cruise on the famous Queen Mary 2 and a memorable dinner with Dame Maggie Smith .

The book will also feature the author’s meditations on places like Australia and Mykonos, as well as his own personal travel tips, like how to pack and get trip updates. Janetti will also dole out his personal restaurant recommendations.  Janetti is known for his work as a writer and producer on shows like Family Guy and Will & Grace . His viral Instagram captions, some of which imagined the inner monologues of Royal family members like Prince George , led to the 2021 premiere of his HBO show The Prince .

Janetti published his first essay collection, bestseller Do You Mind If I Cancel? , in 2019. The book detailed his young adulthood in New York, and his time working in a hotel. “It was the first time I was writing personally about myself, as opposed to writing through a character,” Janetti previously told PEOPLE of the book. “You have a bit of a distance — you’re protected by the [characters].” Janetti published his second essay collection, Start Without Me , in 2022.

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Gett

We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay is poised to make the perfect travel companion, though Janetti says the book will still serve its purpose even if you’re staying home this summer.

"I spent the last year traveling and then wrote a book about it,” he tells PEOPLE of his latest collection. “Now you can go to all those places without having to leave your house. You're welcome."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay will hit bookstores on July 9 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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• 5 Steps to Getting Started with Llama 2
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• Introducing Code Llama, a state-of-the-art large language model for coding
• Meta and Microsoft Introduce the Next Generation of Llama
• Today, we’re introducing Meta Llama 3, the next generation of our state-of-the-art open source large language model.
• Llama 3 models will soon be available on AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, IBM WatsonX, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA NIM, and Snowflake, and with support from hardware platforms offered by AMD, AWS, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.
• We’re dedicated to developing Llama 3 in a responsible way, and we’re offering various resources to help others use it responsibly as well. This includes introducing new trust and safety tools with Llama Guard 2, Code Shield, and CyberSec Eval 2.
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Today, we’re excited to share the first two models of the next generation of Llama, Meta Llama 3, available for broad use. This release features pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned language models with 8B and 70B parameters that can support a broad range of use cases. This next generation of Llama demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on a wide range of industry benchmarks and offers new capabilities, including improved reasoning. We believe these are the best open source models of their class, period. In support of our longstanding open approach, we’re putting Llama 3 in the hands of the community. We want to kickstart the next wave of innovation in AI across the stack—from applications to developer tools to evals to inference optimizations and more. We can’t wait to see what you build and look forward to your feedback.

Our goals for Llama 3

With Llama 3, we set out to build the best open models that are on par with the best proprietary models available today. We wanted to address developer feedback to increase the overall helpfulness of Llama 3 and are doing so while continuing to play a leading role on responsible use and deployment of LLMs. We are embracing the open source ethos of releasing early and often to enable the community to get access to these models while they are still in development. The text-based models we are releasing today are the first in the Llama 3 collection of models. Our goal in the near future is to make Llama 3 multilingual and multimodal, have longer context, and continue to improve overall performance across core LLM capabilities such as reasoning and coding.

State-of-the-art performance

Our new 8B and 70B parameter Llama 3 models are a major leap over Llama 2 and establish a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales. Thanks to improvements in pretraining and post-training, our pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned models are the best models existing today at the 8B and 70B parameter scale. Improvements in our post-training procedures substantially reduced false refusal rates, improved alignment, and increased diversity in model responses. We also saw greatly improved capabilities like reasoning, code generation, and instruction following making Llama 3 more steerable.

*Please see evaluation details for setting and parameters with which these evaluations are calculated.

In the development of Llama 3, we looked at model performance on standard benchmarks and also sought to optimize for performance for real-world scenarios. To this end, we developed a new high-quality human evaluation set. This evaluation set contains 1,800 prompts that cover 12 key use cases: asking for advice, brainstorming, classification, closed question answering, coding, creative writing, extraction, inhabiting a character/persona, open question answering, reasoning, rewriting, and summarization. To prevent accidental overfitting of our models on this evaluation set, even our own modeling teams do not have access to it. The chart below shows aggregated results of our human evaluations across of these categories and prompts against Claude Sonnet, Mistral Medium, and GPT-3.5.

Preference rankings by human annotators based on this evaluation set highlight the strong performance of our 70B instruction-following model compared to competing models of comparable size in real-world scenarios.

Our pretrained model also establishes a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales.

To develop a great language model, we believe it’s important to innovate, scale, and optimize for simplicity. We adopted this design philosophy throughout the Llama 3 project with a focus on four key ingredients: the model architecture, the pretraining data, scaling up pretraining, and instruction fine-tuning.

Model architecture

In line with our design philosophy, we opted for a relatively standard decoder-only transformer architecture in Llama 3. Compared to Llama 2, we made several key improvements. Llama 3 uses a tokenizer with a vocabulary of 128K tokens that encodes language much more efficiently, which leads to substantially improved model performance. To improve the inference efficiency of Llama 3 models, we’ve adopted grouped query attention (GQA) across both the 8B and 70B sizes. We trained the models on sequences of 8,192 tokens, using a mask to ensure self-attention does not cross document boundaries.

Training data

To train the best language model, the curation of a large, high-quality training dataset is paramount. In line with our design principles, we invested heavily in pretraining data. Llama 3 is pretrained on over 15T tokens that were all collected from publicly available sources. Our training dataset is seven times larger than that used for Llama 2, and it includes four times more code. To prepare for upcoming multilingual use cases, over 5% of the Llama 3 pretraining dataset consists of high-quality non-English data that covers over 30 languages. However, we do not expect the same level of performance in these languages as in English.

To ensure Llama 3 is trained on data of the highest quality, we developed a series of data-filtering pipelines. These pipelines include using heuristic filters, NSFW filters, semantic deduplication approaches, and text classifiers to predict data quality. We found that previous generations of Llama are surprisingly good at identifying high-quality data, hence we used Llama 2 to generate the training data for the text-quality classifiers that are powering Llama 3.

We also performed extensive experiments to evaluate the best ways of mixing data from different sources in our final pretraining dataset. These experiments enabled us to select a data mix that ensures that Llama 3 performs well across use cases including trivia questions, STEM, coding, historical knowledge, etc.

Scaling up pretraining

To effectively leverage our pretraining data in Llama 3 models, we put substantial effort into scaling up pretraining. Specifically, we have developed a series of detailed scaling laws for downstream benchmark evaluations. These scaling laws enable us to select an optimal data mix and to make informed decisions on how to best use our training compute. Importantly, scaling laws allow us to predict the performance of our largest models on key tasks (for example, code generation as evaluated on the HumanEval benchmark—see above) before we actually train the models. This helps us ensure strong performance of our final models across a variety of use cases and capabilities.

We made several new observations on scaling behavior during the development of Llama 3. For example, while the Chinchilla-optimal amount of training compute for an 8B parameter model corresponds to ~200B tokens, we found that model performance continues to improve even after the model is trained on two orders of magnitude more data. Both our 8B and 70B parameter models continued to improve log-linearly after we trained them on up to 15T tokens. Larger models can match the performance of these smaller models with less training compute, but smaller models are generally preferred because they are much more efficient during inference.

To train our largest Llama 3 models, we combined three types of parallelization: data parallelization, model parallelization, and pipeline parallelization. Our most efficient implementation achieves a compute utilization of over 400 TFLOPS per GPU when trained on 16K GPUs simultaneously. We performed training runs on two custom-built 24K GPU clusters . To maximize GPU uptime, we developed an advanced new training stack that automates error detection, handling, and maintenance. We also greatly improved our hardware reliability and detection mechanisms for silent data corruption, and we developed new scalable storage systems that reduce overheads of checkpointing and rollback. Those improvements resulted in an overall effective training time of more than 95%. Combined, these improvements increased the efficiency of Llama 3 training by ~three times compared to Llama 2.

Instruction fine-tuning

To fully unlock the potential of our pretrained models in chat use cases, we innovated on our approach to instruction-tuning as well. Our approach to post-training is a combination of supervised fine-tuning (SFT), rejection sampling, proximal policy optimization (PPO), and direct preference optimization (DPO). The quality of the prompts that are used in SFT and the preference rankings that are used in PPO and DPO has an outsized influence on the performance of aligned models. Some of our biggest improvements in model quality came from carefully curating this data and performing multiple rounds of quality assurance on annotations provided by human annotators.

Learning from preference rankings via PPO and DPO also greatly improved the performance of Llama 3 on reasoning and coding tasks. We found that if you ask a model a reasoning question that it struggles to answer, the model will sometimes produce the right reasoning trace: The model knows how to produce the right answer, but it does not know how to select it. Training on preference rankings enables the model to learn how to select it.

Building with Llama 3

Our vision is to enable developers to customize Llama 3 to support relevant use cases and to make it easier to adopt best practices and improve the open ecosystem. With this release, we’re providing new trust and safety tools including updated components with both Llama Guard 2 and Cybersec Eval 2, and the introduction of Code Shield—an inference time guardrail for filtering insecure code produced by LLMs.

We’ve also co-developed Llama 3 with torchtune , the new PyTorch-native library for easily authoring, fine-tuning, and experimenting with LLMs. torchtune provides memory efficient and hackable training recipes written entirely in PyTorch. The library is integrated with popular platforms such as Hugging Face, Weights & Biases, and EleutherAI and even supports Executorch for enabling efficient inference to be run on a wide variety of mobile and edge devices. For everything from prompt engineering to using Llama 3 with LangChain we have a comprehensive getting started guide and takes you from downloading Llama 3 all the way to deployment at scale within your generative AI application.

A system-level approach to responsibility

We have designed Llama 3 models to be maximally helpful while ensuring an industry leading approach to responsibly deploying them. To achieve this, we have adopted a new, system-level approach to the responsible development and deployment of Llama. We envision Llama models as part of a broader system that puts the developer in the driver’s seat. Llama models will serve as a foundational piece of a system that developers design with their unique end goals in mind.

Instruction fine-tuning also plays a major role in ensuring the safety of our models. Our instruction-fine-tuned models have been red-teamed (tested) for safety through internal and external efforts. ​​Our red teaming approach leverages human experts and automation methods to generate adversarial prompts that try to elicit problematic responses. For instance, we apply comprehensive testing to assess risks of misuse related to Chemical, Biological, Cyber Security, and other risk areas. All of these efforts are iterative and used to inform safety fine-tuning of the models being released. You can read more about our efforts in the model card .

Llama Guard models are meant to be a foundation for prompt and response safety and can easily be fine-tuned to create a new taxonomy depending on application needs. As a starting point, the new Llama Guard 2 uses the recently announced MLCommons taxonomy, in an effort to support the emergence of industry standards in this important area. Additionally, CyberSecEval 2 expands on its predecessor by adding measures of an LLM’s propensity to allow for abuse of its code interpreter, offensive cybersecurity capabilities, and susceptibility to prompt injection attacks (learn more in our technical paper ). Finally, we’re introducing Code Shield which adds support for inference-time filtering of insecure code produced by LLMs. This offers mitigation of risks around insecure code suggestions, code interpreter abuse prevention, and secure command execution.

With the speed at which the generative AI space is moving, we believe an open approach is an important way to bring the ecosystem together and mitigate these potential harms. As part of that, we’re updating our Responsible Use Guide (RUG) that provides a comprehensive guide to responsible development with LLMs. As we outlined in the RUG, we recommend that all inputs and outputs be checked and filtered in accordance with content guidelines appropriate to the application. Additionally, many cloud service providers offer content moderation APIs and other tools for responsible deployment, and we encourage developers to also consider using these options.

Deploying Llama 3 at scale

Llama 3 will soon be available on all major platforms including cloud providers, model API providers, and much more. Llama 3 will be everywhere .

Our benchmarks show the tokenizer offers improved token efficiency, yielding up to 15% fewer tokens compared to Llama 2. Also, Group Query Attention (GQA) now has been added to Llama 3 8B as well. As a result, we observed that despite the model having 1B more parameters compared to Llama 2 7B, the improved tokenizer efficiency and GQA contribute to maintaining the inference efficiency on par with Llama 2 7B.

For examples of how to leverage all of these capabilities, check out Llama Recipes which contains all of our open source code that can be leveraged for everything from fine-tuning to deployment to model evaluation.

What’s next for Llama 3?

The Llama 3 8B and 70B models mark the beginning of what we plan to release for Llama 3. And there’s a lot more to come.

Our largest models are over 400B parameters and, while these models are still training, our team is excited about how they’re trending. Over the coming months, we’ll release multiple models with new capabilities including multimodality, the ability to converse in multiple languages, a much longer context window, and stronger overall capabilities. We will also publish a detailed research paper once we are done training Llama 3.

To give you a sneak preview for where these models are today as they continue training, we thought we could share some snapshots of how our largest LLM model is trending. Please note that this data is based on an early checkpoint of Llama 3 that is still training and these capabilities are not supported as part of the models released today.

We’re committed to the continued growth and development of an open AI ecosystem for releasing our models responsibly. We have long believed that openness leads to better, safer products, faster innovation, and a healthier overall market. This is good for Meta, and it is good for society. We’re taking a community-first approach with Llama 3, and starting today, these models are available on the leading cloud, hosting, and hardware platforms with many more to come.

Try Meta Llama 3 today

We’ve integrated our latest models into Meta AI, which we believe is the world’s leading AI assistant. It’s now built with Llama 3 technology and it’s available in more countries across our apps.

You can use Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and the web to get things done, learn, create, and connect with the things that matter to you. You can read more about the Meta AI experience here .

Visit the Llama 3 website to download the models and reference the Getting Started Guide for the latest list of all available platforms.

You’ll also soon be able to test multimodal Meta AI on our Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

As always, we look forward to seeing all the amazing products and experiences you will build with Meta Llama 3.

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About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork

Roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. With a majority of teens having heard of ChatGPT, that amounts to 13% of all U.S. teens who have used the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in their schoolwork.

Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork. About one-quarter of 11th and 12th graders who have heard of ChatGPT say they have done this. This share drops to 17% among 9th and 10th graders and 12% among 7th and 8th graders.

There is no significant difference between teen boys and girls who have used ChatGPT in this way.

The introduction of ChatGPT last year has led to much discussion about its role in schools , especially whether schools should integrate the new technology into the classroom or ban it .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in the school setting.

The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, via Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel . The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Teens’ awareness of ChatGPT

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. teens say they have heard of ChatGPT, including 23% who have heard a lot about it. But awareness varies by race and ethnicity, as well as by household income:

• 72% of White teens say they’ve heard at least a little about ChatGPT, compared with 63% of Hispanic teens and 56% of Black teens.
• 75% of teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually have heard of ChatGPT. Much smaller shares in households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 (58%) and less than $30,000 (41%) say the same.

Teens who are more aware of ChatGPT are more likely to use it for schoolwork. Roughly a third of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT (36%) have used it for schoolwork, far higher than the 10% among those who have heard a little about it.

When do teens think it’s OK for students to use ChatGPT?

For teens, whether it is – or is not – acceptable for students to use ChatGPT depends on what it is being used for.

There is a fair amount of support for using the chatbot to explore a topic. Roughly seven-in-ten teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use when they are researching something new, while 13% say it is not acceptable.

However, there is much less support for using ChatGPT to do the work itself. Just one-in-five teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to write essays, while 57% say it is not acceptable. And 39% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while a similar share of teens (36%) say it’s not acceptable.

Some teens are uncertain about whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks. Between 18% and 24% say they aren’t sure whether these are acceptable use cases for ChatGPT.

Those who have heard a lot about ChatGPT are more likely than those who have only heard a little about it to say it’s acceptable to use the chatbot to research topics, solve math problems and write essays. For instance, 54% of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to solve math problems, compared with 32% among those who have heard a little about it.

Note: Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

• Artificial Intelligence
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• Teens & Tech

Olivia Sidoti is a research assistant focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

Jeffrey Gottfried is an associate director focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

Many Americans think generative AI programs should credit the sources they rely on

Americans’ use of chatgpt is ticking up, but few trust its election information, q&a: how we used large language models to identify guests on popular podcasts, striking findings from 2023, what the data says about americans’ views of artificial intelligence, most popular.

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Liz Cheney: The Supreme Court Should Rule Swiftly on Trump’s Immunity Claim

By Liz Cheney

Ms. Cheney, a Republican, is a former U.S. representative from Wyoming and was vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 select committee in the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump’s arguments that he is immune from prosecution for his efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election. It is likely that all — or nearly all — of the justices will agree that a former president who attempted to seize power and remain in office illegally can be prosecuted. I suspect that some justices may also wish to clarify whether doctrines of presidential immunity might apply in other contexts — for example, to a president’s actions as commander in chief during a time of war. But the justices should also recognize the profoundly negative impact they may have if the court does not resolve these issues quickly and decisively.

If delay prevents this Trump case from being tried this year, the public may never hear critical and historic evidence developed before the grand jury, and our system may never hold the man most responsible for Jan. 6 to account.

The Jan. 6 House select committee’s hearings and final report in 2022 relied on testimony given by dozens of Republicans — including many who worked closely with Mr. Trump in the White House, in his Justice Department and on his 2020 presidential campaign. The special counsel Jack Smith’s election-related indictment of Mr. Trump relies on many of the same firsthand witnesses. Although the special counsel reached a number of the same conclusions as the select committee, the indictment is predicated on a separate and independent investigation. Evidence was developed and presented to a grand jury sitting in Washington, D.C.

The indictment and public reporting suggest that the special counsel was able to obtain key evidence our committee did not have. For example, it appears that the grand jury received evidence from witnesses such as Mark Meadows, a former Trump chief of staff, and Dan Scavino, a former Trump aide, both of whom refused to testify in our investigation. Public reporting also suggests that members of Mr. Trump’s Office of White House Counsel and other White House aides testified in full, without any limitations based on executive privilege, as did Vice President Mike Pence and his counsel.

The special counsel’s indictment lays out Mr. Trump’s detailed plan to overturn the 2020 election, including the corrupt use of fraudulent slates of electors in several states. According to the indictment, senior advisers in the White House, Justice Department and elsewhere repeatedly warned that Mr. Trump’s claims of election fraud were false and that his plans for Jan. 6 were illegal. Mr. Trump chose to ignore those warnings. (Remember what the White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told Mr. Trump’s alleged co-conspirator John Eastman on Jan. 7, 2021: “Get a great f’ing criminal defense lawyer. You’re gonna need it.”) There is little doubt that Mr. Trump’s closest advisers also gave the federal grand jury minute-to-minute accounts of his malicious conduct on Jan. 6, describing how they repeatedly begged the president to instruct the violent rioters to leave our Capitol and how Mr. Trump refused for several hours to do so as he watched the attack on television. This historic testimony about a former president’s conduct is likely to remain secret until the special counsel presents his case at trial.

As a criminal defendant, Mr. Trump has long had access to federal grand jury material relating to his Jan. 6 indictment and to all the testimony obtained by our select committee. He knows what all these witnesses have said under oath and understands the risks he faces at trial. That’s why he is doing everything possible to try to delay his Jan. 6 federal criminal trial until after the November election. If the trial is delayed past this fall and Mr. Trump wins re-election, he will surely fire the special counsel, order his Justice Department to drop all Jan. 6 cases and try to prevent key grand jury testimony from ever seeing the light of day.

I know how Mr. Trump’s delay tactics work. Our committee had to spend months litigating his privilege claims (in Trump v. Thompson) before we could gain access to White House records. Court records and public reporting suggest that the special counsel also invested considerable time defeating Mr. Trump’s claims of executive privilege, which were aimed at preventing key evidence from reaching the grand jury. All of this evidence should be presented in open court, so that the public can fully assess what Mr. Trump did on Jan. 6 and what a man capable of that type of depravity could do if again handed the awesome power of the presidency.

Early this year, a federal appeals court took less than a month after oral argument to issue its lengthy opinion on immunity. History shows that the Supreme Court can act just as quickly , when necessary. And the court should fashion its decision in a way that does not lead to further time-consuming appeals on presidential immunity. It cannot be that a president of the United States can attempt to steal an election and seize power but our justice system is incapable of bringing him to trial before the next election four years later.

Mr. Trump believes he can threaten and intimidate judges and their families , assert baseless legal defenses and thereby avoid accountability altogether. Through this conduct, he seeks to break our institutions. If Mr. Trump’s tactics prevent his Jan. 6 trial from proceeding in the ordinary course, he will also have succeeded in concealing critical evidence from the American people — evidence demonstrating his disregard for the rule of law, his cruelty on Jan. 6 and the deep flaws in character that make him unfit to serve as president. The Supreme Court should understand this reality and conclude without delay that no immunity applies here.

Liz Cheney, a Republican, is a former U.S. representative from Wyoming and was vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 select committee in the House of Representatives.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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