Paperback LITERARY COLLECTIONS/Essays A Paperback Original 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.