Best Canadian Essays 2023

by Mireille Silcoff (Editor)

Selected by editor Mireille Silcoff, the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Essays showcases the best Canadian nonfiction writing published in 2021.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Canada

288 pages, Hardcover

Published November 8, 2022

About the author

Mireille Silcoff is a columnist with Canada's National Post. She writes for publications including The New York Times Magazine and The Walrus. She is the founding editor of Guilt & Pleasure Quarterly, a quarterly magazine of new Jewish writing and ideas. She has been a senior editor with the National Post, Saturday Night Magazine, and various other publications. She is also the founder of a string of Jewish discussion salons active in several American and Canadian cities.

Mireille is the recipient of several journalism awards, including National Magazine Awards. Mireille is the author of three books. Her first two are about drug and nightclub culture. She has been called "an ecstasy guru" on television in broad daylight. Her most recent book is Archetypes (McClelland & Stewart; the book is called Urban Animals in the US), a collection of her (now defunct) illustrated National Post column of the same name. Mireille lives in Montreal, where she is currently writing her second collection of short stories. Her first, CHEZ L'ARABE, will be published by the House of Anansi press in Fall 2014.

Reviews

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 4 out of 5]

The talent coming out of Canada is amazing to see! The editors selections were great, such important topics covered.

So many great essays in here but the ones that stood out the most to me are: the one about the neighbourhood I grew up in by Kunal Choudhary. Also, Genetic Mapping by Emma Gilchrist was intense. You can read the essay here.

My absolute favourite essay in this collection tho was Rescuing the Radicalized Discourse on Sex and Gender by Allan Stratton, you can read that here. This essay did some LIFTING on common conversations many are having these days, and illustrated various points of view that I found myself thinking on for long long periods of time, this is the essay that I want to sit down and pick apart with my friends.

Overall, a great series. I'm going to read Best Canadian Short Stories 2023, and Poetry 2023 at some point this upcoming year.

[Andrew Sare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good writing, but also somewhat disappointing. I’d been looking for forward thinking and thoughts to carry me in to the new year. Instead I got essays about COVID, loneliness, and overwork. This is due to the publishing cycle. The reader is getting 2021 essays, many of which would have been formulated before that. One piece that stood above was written by Heather Jessup who looks for instructions for life in writing manuals. Great, fun writing in that one.

[Kate McDougall Sackler · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any group of writing, I liked some better than others. Some may were about Covid, which I still kind-of feel is too soon. Many talked a lot about American politics, specifically Donald Trump, and for a collection of Canadian essays, I found annoying. Several used the same resources, which is fine if all the excerpts were supposed to be about the same topic, but I feel that there is more subject matter diversity out there. Many pieces were thought provoking and informative. I especially liked Emma Golchrist’s “Genetic Mapping”, ME Rogan’s “Quitting America”, Kathy Page’s “That Other Place”, Heather Jessup’s “Klein Bottle”, and Christopher Cheung’s “Blind Spots”.
2025 reading challenge -a collection of short stories or novellas, essays, poetry, or a mix of various brief writings

[Geoff Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stand out essays from this year's Best Canadian Essays: Jane Hu's "Filet-o-Fish," Sharon Butala's "On Aging Alone," "Genetic Mapping" by Emma Gilchrist," and Jamaluddin Aram's "Afganistan, the Beautiful Land of Endless Suffering."