Lesson learned: you never know what you'll find when you google yourself. But apparently, I did have an essay in The Best American Essays Notable list of 2021, but because "it was a longer list than usual," the list ended up appearing at the back of The Best American Essays 2022, after the Notables list of that year which included another essay of mine (a piece I wrote about learning to tango and reconnecting with family history, which appeared in Colorado Review). This essay I never knew was also named Notable in another list appearing in the same anthology appeared in Lunch Ticket back in 2020, and is the title essay of my forthcoming essay collection, Returning To My Father's Kitchen, which is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press/Curbstone Books. It's an essay that's particularly dear to me, about how I returned to my father's kitchen after his passing, and taught myself to prepare his favorite dishes in an effort to connect with his spirit. I am humbled by the generosity of Robert Atwan and his team of readers at the Best American Essays series, for granting me my fourth Best American Essays Notable despite the challenges of keeping up with submissions during the pandemic. Other editors wouldn't have added this list to the following year's anthology, but they went the extra mile.
Read the essay here, and the two Notable lists featured in The Best American Essays 2022 here (be sure to scroll down to the end because you may also just find your name, wink wink).
Read the essay here, and the two Notable lists featured in The Best American Essays 2022 here (be sure to scroll down to the end because you may also just find your name, wink wink).
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