The Best American Essays 2025

A collection of the year's best essays, selected by critically acclaimed author and essayist, Jia Tolentino.The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected-and most popular-of its kind.Jia Tolentino, critically acclaimed essayist, editor, and New Yorker staff writer, selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

About the author

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She grew up in Texas, attended the University of Virginia, and served in Kyrgyzstan in the Peace Corps. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. She was a contributing editor at The Hairpin and the deputy editor at Jezebel. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Grantland, Slate, Pitchfork, Bon Appetit, Spin, and Fader. She lives in Brooklyn.