Pieces of Mind: 30 Great New Essay Collections

Essay collections offer a unique kind of reader experience, one that can be rewarding in a different way from novels or even other types of nonfiction. Essays often provide multiple angles of attack on a certain theme, providing a kind of literary 3-D effect. Sometimes they work as little first-person short stories. And sometimes they’re just funny.

Below is a curated list of 30 recently published essay collections, each offering an assortment of bite-size writing from a particular author (or, in some cases, an invited collection of authors).

Larissa Pham’s Pop Song reads like a memoir-in-essays, with each chapter considering a different way of falling in love. A Little Devil in America is author Hanif Abdurraqib’s deeply researched exploration of Black performance in America. For some comic relief, consider Annabelle Gurwitch, the never-not-funny Thurber Prize nominee, and her new collection, You're Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility.

Scroll over the covers below to learn more about each book, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!

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