Includes contributors' notes and other notable essays and literary nonfiction of 2020.

Includes bibliographical references.

The Trayvon generation / Elizabeth Alexander, from The New Yorker -- Homecoming / Hilton Als, from The New Yorker -- The broken country / Molly McCully Brown, from Virginia Quarterly Review -- Acceptance parenting / Agnes Callard, from The Point -- The kitchen is closed / Gabrielle Hamilton, from The New York Times Magazine -- Bent arrows: on anticipation of my approaching disappearance / Tony Hoagland, from Ploughshares -- Vicious cycles / Greg Jackson, from Harper's Magazine -- Clarity / Ruchir Joshi, from Granta -- Oh Latitudo / Amy Leach, from Granta -- Insane after coronavirus? / Patricia Lockwood, from London Review of Books -- Love in a time of terror / Barry Lopez, from Literary Hub -- What I learned when my husband got sick with coronavirus / Jessica Lustig, from The New York Times Magazine -- What money can't buy / Dawn Lundy Martin, from Ploughshares -- Two women / Claire Messud, from A Public Space -- My mustache / Wesley Morris, from The New York Times Magazine -- Apparent / Beth Nguyen, from The Paris Review -- The designated mourner / Fintan O'Toole, from The New York Review of Books -- Going postal / Max Read, from Bookforum -- In orbit / Dariel Suarez, from The Threepenny Review -- Witness and respair / Jesmyn Ward, from Vanity Fair.