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A true essay is "something hazarded, not definitive, not authoritative; something ventured on the basis of the author´s personal experience and subjectivity," writes guest editor Jonathan Franzen in his introduction. However, his main criterion for selecting The Best American Essays 2016 was, in a word, risk. Whether the risks involved championing an unpopular opinion, the possibility of ruining a professional career, or irrevocably offending family, for Franzen, "the writer has to be like the firefighter, whose job, while everyone else is fleeing the flames, is to run straight into them." The Best American Essays 2016 includes ALEXANDER CHEE, PAUL CRENSHAW, JAQUIRA DÖAZ, LAURA KIPNIS, AMITAVA KUMAR, SEBASTIAN JUNGER, JOYCE CAROL OATES, OLIVER SACKS, THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS and others JONATHAN FRANZEN, guest editor, is the author of five novels, most recently Purity, and five works of nonfiction and translation, including Farther Away and The Kraus Project. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the German Akademie der Künste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. ROBERT ATWAN, the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986, has published on a wide variety of subjects, from American advertising and early photography to ancient divination and Shakespeare. His criticism, essays, humor, poetry, and fiction have appeared in numerous periodicals nationwide.

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BAE 2015 : "The 30th Best American Essays collection maintains the series´ standards of excellence...These and many of the other selections offer illuminating, invaluable glimpses into lives that might otherwise remain outside the reader´s ken ."-- Publishers Weekly

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Jonathan Franzen, 1959 geboren, erhielt für seinen Weltbestseller "Die Korrekturen" 2001 den National Book Award. Er veröffentlichte weitere Romane. Seit 2010 ist er Mitglied der Berliner Akademie der Künste, 2013 wurde ihm für sein Gesamtwerk der WELT-Literaturpreis verliehen. Jonathan Franzen lebt in New York und Santa Cruz, Kalifornien.

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Jonathan Franzen, born 1959, is the winner of the 2001 National Book Award for fiction. He lives in New York City.

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