Sheila Heti - The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018

Copyright 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Introduction copyright 2018 by Sheila Heti

Editors Note copyright 2018 by Clara Sankey

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Best American Series is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Nonrequired Reading is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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ISSN: 1539-316X (print) ISSN : 2573-3923 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-1-328-46581-8 (print) ISBN: 978-1-328-46713-3 (e-book)

Cover illustration and design Tommi Parrish

Heti photograph Steph Martyniuk

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On Future and Working Through What Hurts by Hanif Abdurraqib. First published in They Cant Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Two Dollar Radio. Copyright 2017 by Hanif Abdurraqib. Reprinted by permission of the author.

From The Antipodes by Annie Baker. First published by Samuel French, Inc. Copyright 2017 by Annie Baker. Reprinted by permission of the author.

The Deaths of Henry King: Selected Demises by Jesse Ball and Brian Evenson. Art by Lilli Carr. First published in McSweeneys. Copyright 2017 by Jesse Ball and Brian Evenson. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

Six Selected Comics by Chris. First published by @chrissimpsonsartist on Instagram. Copyright 2017 by Chris. Reprinted by permission of the author.

A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major by Seo-Young Chu. First published in Entropy. Copyright 2017 by Seo-Young Chu. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Wave at the People Walking Upside Down by Tongo Eisen-Martin. First published by Open Space, collected in Heaven Is All Goodbyes. Copyright 2017 by Tongo Eisen-Martin. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild by Kathy Fish. First published in Jellyfish Review. Copyright 2017 by Kathy Fish. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Love, Death & Trousers by Laura Francis and Alexander Masters. First published in the Paris Review. Copyright 2017 by Laura Francis and Alexander Masters. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

Selection excerpted from Hunger by Roxane Gay. First published by HarperCollins. Copyright 2017 by Roxane Gay. Reprinted by permission of the author.

A Fair Accusation of Sexual Harassment or a Witch Hunt? by Lucy Huber. First published in McSweeneys Internet Tendency. Copyright 2017 by Lucy Huber. Reprinted by permission of the author.

A Love Story from The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt. Copyright 2017 by Samantha Hunt. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Originally published in the May 22, 2017, issue of The New Yorker.

Chasing Waterfalls by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, translated by John Batki. Published in English by Harpers Magazine. From the story Nine Dragon Crossing, included in The World Goes On. Copyright 2013 by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Translation copyright 2017 by John Batki. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

The David Party by David Leavitt. First published by Washington Square Review, Fall 2017. Copyright 2017 by David Leavitt. Reprinted by permission of the Wylie Agency, LLC.

A Tribute to Alvin Buenaventura by Andrew Leland, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Anders Nilsen. First published by the Believer. Copyright 2017 by Andrew Leland, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Anders Nilsen. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

Eight Bites by Carmen Maria Machado from Her Body and Other Parties. First published by Gulf Coast. Copyright 2017 by Carmen Maria Machado. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org.

The Reenactors by Katherine Augusta Mayfield. First published by Columbia University School of the Arts Thesis Anthology. Copyright 2017 by Katherine Augusta Mayfield. Reprinted by permission of the author.

From Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin. Published in English by The New York Review of Books. Copyright 1994 by Qiu Miaojin. Translation copyright 2017 by Bonnie Huie. All rights reserved.

Divine Providence by Quim Monzo, translated by Peter Bush. Published in English by A Public Space.La divina providencia taken from El perque de tot plegat 1993, 1999 by Joaquim Monzo, 1993, 1999 by Quaderns Crema, S.A. (Acantilado), Barcelona, Spain. Translation 2017 by Peter Bush. Reprinted by permission of Quaderns Crema, S.A.

Come and Eat the Worlds Largest Shrimp Cocktail in Mexicos Massacre Capital by Diego Enrique Osorno. First published by Freemans. Copyright 2017 by Diego Enrique Osorno. Translation copyright 2017 by Christina MacSweeney. Reprinted by permission of the Wylie Agency, LLC.

Meanwhile, on Another Planet from Knots by Gunnhild yehaug, translated by Kari Dickson. Translation copyright 2017 by Kari Dickson. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Your Black Friend by Ben Passmore. First published by Silver Sprocket. Copyright 2017 by Ben Passmore. Reprinted by permission of the author.

This Rain by Catherine Pond. First published by Sixth Finch. Copyright 2017 by Sixth Finch. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Cat Person from You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian. Copyright 2019 by Kristen Roupenian. Reprinted with the permission of Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lizard-Baby by Benjamin Schaefer. First published by Guernica. Copyright 2017 by Benjamin Schaefer. Reprinted by permission of the author.

The Universe Would Be So Cruel by Souvankham Thammavongsa. First published by NOON. Copyright 2017 by NOON. Reprinted by permission of the author.

My Familys Slave by Alex Tizon. Copyright 2017 The Atlantic Media Co., as first published in the Atlantic. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Stacey Tran in Conversation with Vi Khi Nao by Stacey Tran and Vi Khi Nao. First published by Cosmonauts Avenue. Copyright 2017 by Stacey Tran and Vi Khi Nao. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

Artists Statement by Kara Walker. First published by sikkemajenkinsco.com. Copyright 2017 Kara Walker. Reprinted by permission of the author.

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. First published by New York Magazine. Copyright 2017 New York Media LLC. Reprinted by permission.

An Excerpt from Blacks and the Master/Slave by Frank B. Wilderson III and C.

S. Soong. First published by the syndicated radio program Against the Grain, which originates out of KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California. Republished in 2017 by Racked & Dispatched. Copyright 2015 by Frank B. Wilderson III and C. S. Soong. Reprinted by permission of the authors.