‘Best American Essays’ Features Two from Massachusetts Review

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Two essays that originally appeared in The Massachusetts Review are included in the 2018 edition of Best American Essays edited by Pulitzer Prize author Hilton Als and published Oct. 2 by Mariner Books.

The selected essays are “Prospects for Survival” by noted linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky and “You Are the Phenomenology” by Timothy O’Keefe. Both appeared in Vol. 58, Issue 4 of the campus-based literary journal.

“Both essays have strong ties to UMass, so it’s really a coup—and certainly the first time ever for us to have two essays picked in a single year,” says Jim Hicks, executive editor of Mass Review.

Chomsky’s essay is based on a talk he gave at the Mullins Center in April 2017 in which he speculated about the potential end of the world by nuclear destruction or global warming.

O’Keefe’s entry is an excerpt from a book of the same title published last February by the University of Massachusetts Press. “You Are the Phenomenology” is a cross-genre book—a blend of poetry, songs, lyric prose and invented forms—that explores the everyday junctures of perception, compassion and multiplicity.