The Essay Prize is given each year to the work that best exemplifies the art of essaying—of inquiry, rumination, discovery, and change. Open to projects in any medium or form—be it text, film, radio, performance, or other—the Essay Prize intentionally stretches the definition of "essaying" in order to celebrate work that is defined by what it does—the activity that it engages in—rather than what it is—its "nonfictional" verifiability.
We asked some of our favorite essayists to compile a list of their own favorite essays of all time.
Read Their Lists
By venturing into story in order to create her maps, Judith Schalansky has written a booklength essay that negotiates “between impertinently simplifying abstraction and an aesthetic appropriation of the world.”