The Contest You Didn’t Enter: Dealing With “Best” Lists, for Better or Worse

by
Jonathan Durbin
From the May/June 2024 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine
4.10.24

Year-end “best-of” roundups can hit like a truck, especially when our culture’s system of awarding recognition can feel arbitrary and unfair. A fiction writer offers perspectives to better understand the value of these lists and protect your joy.