Best biographical essays

Friends, it&#;s true: the end of the decade approaches. It&#;s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally compromised decade, but at least it&#;s been populated by some damn fine literature. We&#;ll take our silver linings where we can.

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So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website—though with full awareness of the potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task—in the coming weeks, we&#;ll be taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade that was. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. We began with the best debut novels, the best short story collections, the best poetry collections, and the best memoirs of the decade, and we have now reached the fifth list in our series: the best essay collections published in English between and

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. And as you&#;ll shortly see, we had a hard time choosing just ten—so we&#;ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even longer list of also-rans. As ever, free to add any of your own favorites that we&#;ve missed in the comments below.

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Oliver Sacks, The Mind&#;s Eye ()

Toward the end of his life, maybe suspecting or sensing that it was coming to a close, Dr. Oliver Sacks tended to focus his efforts on sweeping intellectual projects like On the Move (a memoir), The River of Consciousness (a hybrid intellectual history), and Hallucinations (a book-length meditation on, what else, hallucinations). But in , he gave us one more classic in the style that first made him famous, a form he revolutionized and brought into the contemporary literary canon: the medical case study as essay.

Explore the art of storytelling through captivating biographical essays. Join us on a journey of discovery as we unveil inspiring examples that teach you how to craft compelling life stories. Step into the world of biography writing and learn how to engage readers with fascinating narratives. Get ready to bring extraordinary lives to life on the page!

The art of storytelling has been an integral part of human culture since the dawn of civilization. It is through stories that we learn about the lives of others, understand different perspectives, and gain insight into the human experience. Biographical essays, in particular, provide a unique opportunity to delve into the life story of an individual and share their journey with readers. In this article, we will explore biographical essay examples and learn how to tell a compelling life story in writing.

What Is a Biographical Essay?

A biographical essay is a piece of writing in which you narrate the life story of an individual. It provides an opportunity for you to conduct research and discover fascinating details and perspectives concerning someone. A biographical essay is also a written account of an individual's life, highlighting their achievements, experiences, and personal characteristics. It can be about historical figures, famous personalities, or even ordinary people who have made a significant impact on the world or those around them. Biographical essays are often used in academic settings to provide insight into a person's life and contributions, but they can also be written for personal, professional, or entertainment purposes.

One of the key elements of a compelling biographical essay is a well-crafted narrative. The narrative structure helps to engage readers and keeps them interested in the story being told. A 

A good biographical essay should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, just like any other story.

My favorite personal essays showcase a vivid personality and clear mind or perception of the world. I find these qualities more engaging than really amazing material.

There are great, award-winning essays focusing on horrifying or remarkable stories—a hitchhiker who survives an encounter with a serial killer targeting hitchhikers, for example.

Of course, those story-driven essays also have to be very well written, and the one I alluded to in the previous sentence contains beautiful prose.

But I’m especially interested in essays that manage to achieve a similar level of potency with somewhat mundane material.

This list contains an essay by Melissa Febos, for example, whose first book was about her time as a dominatrix (exciting material!) but by far my favorite writing from her is after she’d exhausted that “dramatic” material.

Here are ten of my favorite personal essays, though I may add more in the future. Many are wonderful demonstrations of the nine types of essays. Of course, you or anyone else has the right to make your own best list.

Dillard:"This is the Life"

I adore this essay. Written in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it doesn’t talk about those events directly, or even obliquely. Instead, it offers a mind-expanding dirge on cultural relativism, which sounds abstract, but I assure you it is not.

The piece lays bare the ephemeral nature of all human endeavors and shows how our values are only the reflection of our own very narrow field of perception.

First line:Any culture tells you how to live your one and only life: to wit, as everyone else does.

2. Leslie Jamison: "Dreamers in Broad Daylight"

Jamison’s best essay might be “The Empathy Exams,” but everyone says that. This essay is a great example of how a writer can take a narrow subject (in this case, daydreaming), and go at it from numerous angles—using her own embarrassing stories of daydreaming about guys she’s attracted to, among other

Robert Atwan, the founder of The Best American Essays series, picks the 10 best essays of the postwar period. Links to the essays are provided when available.

Fortunately, when I worked with Joyce Carol Oates on The Best American Essays of the Century (that’s the last century, by the way), we weren’t restricted to ten selections. So to make my list of the top ten essays since less impossible, I decided to exclude all the great examples of New Journalism--Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Michael Herr, and many others can be reserved for another list. I also decided to include only American writers, so such outstanding English-language essayists as Chris Arthur and Tim Robinson are missing, though they have appeared in The Best American Essays series. And I selected essays, not essayists. A list of the top ten essayists since would feature some different writers.

To my mind, the best essays are deeply personal (that doesn’t necessarily mean autobiographical) and deeply engaged with issues and ideas. And the best essays show that the name of the genre is also a verb, so they demonstrate a mind in process--reflecting, trying-out, essaying.

James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son" (originally appeared in Harper’s, )

“I had never thought of myself as an essayist,” wrote James Baldwin, who was finishing his novel Giovanni’s Room while he worked on what would become one of the great American essays. Against a violent historical background, Baldwin recalls his deeply troubled relationship with his father and explores his growing awareness of himself as a black American. Some today may question the relevance of the essay in our brave new “post-racial” world, though Baldwin considered the essay still relevant in and, had he lived to see it, the election of Barak Obama may not have changed his mind. However you view the racial politics, the prose is undeni