Three essays from the 2012 volume of New Hibernia Review have been selected as notable essays that will appear in Best American Essays 2013, which will be published this autumn by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
New Hibernia Review is a quarterly journal of Irish Studies produced by the university’s Center for Irish Studies. Although most of the journal consists of annotated scholarly articles, it also presents creative writing. Each issue includes a personal essay and a suite of new poems.
James Rogers, editor of the review, noted that five earlier essays from New Hibernia Review were selected as “notables” from 1998 to 2011, “but having three out of four selected in a single year is a remarkable honor."
“This year’s ‘notables’ list includes writers like John McPhee, Maxine Kumin, Ann Patchett and CK Williams. It’s a thrill to be in such company,” he said.
Here are the honored essays, which can be accessed via the links to Project Muse, an online service in which New Hibernia Review participates:
- “Jim, Across the Road” by Aileen Dillane, volume 16, number 1 (Spring 2012), is a memoir of an elderly folk musician in a small Irish town.
- “Sleeping With Books” by Sean Lysaght (a poet who received the university’s O’Shaughnessy Award in 2007), volume 16, number 2 (Summer 2012), is an essay that considers how book collecting serves as a bridge across generations.
- “Kirwan Street, In Memory” by Kieran Quinlan, volume 16, number 4 (Winter 2012) is a memoir of a Dublin neighborhood in which class distinctions were strictly observed.
Best American Essays 2013 was guest edited by Cheryl Strayed. The series editor is Robert Atwan.
Also of note, Rogers made the “notables” list for a personal essay titled “Outside Metaphor,” which was published in Ruminate Magazine.