Introduction / Lauren Slater -- Kinsey and me / Laurie Abraham -- 501 minutes to Christ / Poe Ballantine -- Teaching the N-Word / Emily Bernard -- City out of breath / Ken Chen -- Beginning dialogues / Toi Derricotte -- Culture of celebrity / Joseph Epstein -- Whistling in the dark / Eugene Goodheart -- Death of a fish / Adam Gopnik -- Relief / Kim Dana Kupperman -- Grammar Lessons: The subjunctive mood / Michele Morano -- Lost dog / Susan Orlean -- George / Sam Pickering -- Shame / Robert Polito -- Illness as more than metaphor / David Rieff -- Recalled to life / Oliver Sacks -- Confessions of a left-handed man / Peter Selgin -- Why write? / Alan Shapiro -- Group grief / Lily Tuck -- Missing Bellow / Scott Turow -- Matter of life and death / Marjorie Williams -- Biographical notes -- Notable essays of 2005.

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected, and most popular, of its kind.