Essay Essays

"Searingly honest, brilliant and disturbing. Brad Phillips peels back the skin and bone and stares right into the human soul." (Anthony Bourdain) Brad Phillips' collection of short stories adeptly walks a very thin line between taboo and propriety, with rigorous self-awareness and generosity. By confusing ideas around fiction and autobiography, Phillips writes with painful sincerity about shame, addiction, trauma, and the more troubling outreaches of sexual desire, with wit that is at odds with the subject matter. Brad Phillips is a well-known Canadian artist.

Must reading for anyone with one or more essays to write for purposes of application for admission to a college or university, this concise eBook represents the distilled wisdom of a recognized expert's more than 30 years of experience helping applicants write winning submissions, to gain admission to the most competitive programs in all fields. Daniel K. Berman is a Harvard graduate, former college teacher and PhD, with more than 30 years of admissions coaching experience. Dozens of five-star reviews on sites such as Yelp and Google testify to the success of his easy-to-understand, time-...

Time is short and college bound students need their applications to make an impact on the overworked admissions officers who guard the gates at prestigious universities. To succeed in this mission, they need a book that will get read! In The 1-Hour College Admissions Essay, screenwriter and Hollywood story consultant, Craig Machen, offers a simple set of story telling tools to give personal statements the emotional impact they need to stand out. These concepts are not complex, but without them it’s almost impossible to write anything moving or memorable. In this concise but all ...

Dismissed by a bored author at a book signing, a betrayed young man named David Sedaris made a vow. Someday, when it was his turn at the table, he’d connect with his readers. The experience has been even more revealing than he’d hoped.In this hilarious and perceptive essay, the celebrated humorist reflects on the unusual patterns of forced socialization between author and audience, and the obligations and sometimes surprising returns of not-so-chance encounters with strangers: jokes, secrets, insights, and even charity.

“Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart.

Great thinkers come and go, but if preserved their writings live on. This is a treasure book like no other. Collected in five volumes are hundreds of essays, some never before published and others hard to find, of one of the foremost Christian apologists of our time. Dr. Norman L. Geisler is a prolific author, veteran professor, speaker, lecturer, traveler, philosopher, apologist, evangelist, and theologian. To those who ask. "Who is Norm Geisler?" some have suggested, "Imagine a cross between Thomas Aquinas and Billy Graham and you're not too far off." He has spent his life defending the ...

For more than 25 years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to listen without laughing.

Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

A Realistic Guide to Drastically Improving Your Child’s Writing After twenty-five years as an educator working with at-risk youth, Micheal Maxwell has certainly learned what works and what doesn't in teaching basic writing skills to people who have no real interest in writing. “If your student is failing or falling desperately behind, this guide will give them the tools to build their confidence in writing, and take away the, “I don’t know where to start”. Shari Damaso, recently said in an Amazon.com review, “This is a great tool for adults who want to help kids improve their ...

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in 20th-century literature. In this charged collection of 15 essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and personal stories that grapple with her own (mis)understanding of identity. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in the woods, Ziwe raises difficult questions for comedic relief.

THE EARLY 2000s conjures images of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans. It was a new millennium and the future looked bright, promising prosperity for all. The internet had arrived, and technology was shiny and fun. For many, it felt like the end of history: no more wars, racism, or sexism. But then history kept happening. Twenty-five years after the ball dropped on December 31st, 1999, we are still living in the shadows of the Y2K Era.

Hear some of the greatest American essays ever written! This unabridged collection covers a multitude of subjects, including philosophy, politics, turkeys, and dogs.

In 1572, Montaigne - nobleman, humanist, and thoroughly Renaissance man - retired to the seclusion of his estate in the Dordogne and started to write. From his pen poured a stream of "essays" - attempts to capture the observations that came to him on an idiosyncratic range of subjects, from ancient customs, cannibals, and books to thumbs, war-horses, and the wearing of clothes. He made the study of himself the starting point for investigations into how to live, and wrote with a startlingly modern candor about love, grief, friendship, sex, and death.

Smart, edgy, hilarious, and unabashedly raunchy New York Times best-selling author Samantha Irby explodes in her uproarious first collection of essays. Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. Updated with her favorite Instagramable, couch-friendly recipes, this much-beloved romp is treat for anyone in dire need of Irby's infamous, scathing wit, and poignant candor.

Winner of the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award, this path-breaking collection of essays is a clarion call to build communities that nurture our spirit. Lorde announces the need for a radical politics of intersectionality while struggling to maintain her own faith as she wages a battle against liver cancer. From reflections on her struggle with the disease to thoughts on lesbian sexuality and African-American identity in a straight white man's world, Lorde's voice remains enduringly relevant in today's political landscape.

Sociologist-economist Sowell, a noted conservative, offers opinions on social and foreign policy, law, education, and race, criticizing the trend of American politics since Reagan and reserving his sharpest criticism for special-interest groups.

One of the most remarkable figures of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne was a brilliant French philosopher and statesman whose work directly influenced René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isaac Asimov and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a humanist and a sceptic, with an insatiable and wide-ranging curiosity. In 1571, on his 38th birthday, he withdrew from public life and retired to the library in his castle tower, where he assembled a body of work that is still highly relevant today.

The critically-acclaimed historian’s insights, sense of humor, and sharp pen take on everything from Vietnam, Israel, and the Great War to writing history and its meaning. Includes these essays: Why Policy-Makers Do Not Listen; When Does History Happen?; Is History a Guide to the Future?; America as an Idea; How We Entered World War I; and more

Most high school students never have received any instruction in how to write a personal essay. Yet at a time when getting admitted to their dream college is more competitive than ever, the admissions essay may turn out to be the single most important thing they will ever write. The stakes are high. In Writing Tools for the College Essay, veteran journalist and writing coach Roy Peter Clark shows how any student can showcase their unique achievements, intellect, and attributes to stand out from the crowd.