Further reading: Best of 2021 Part Two: Writers’ Picks, Best of 2021 Part Three: Editors’ Picks, 2020 review, 2019 review
Welcome one, welcome all to the end of the year the post calvin celebration! Over the next three days, we’ll get to revisit the essays that kept us company through 2021. If you are feeling nostalgic, feel free to check out last year’s review (and beyond).
To kick this party off, we asked you, our readers, to submit some of your favorite pieces from this year. After all, what is writing if there is no one there to read it? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? We don’t have to worry about answering those questions, though, because you all continue to lend your ears and your mind (and your voice with an occasional comment or two) to this small corner of the internet. In looking back on 2021, you offered up some of the essays that cheered, comforted, and challenged you. You’ll find those essays below alongside our most-read posts of the year (starred).
Crochet, Math, and Things We Can’t Solve | Juliana Knot
A Warm Welcome | Juliana Knot *
Samin and Me | Comfort Sampong
It Kindly Stopped for Me | Susannah Boersma
Six-Rose Eulogy | Gwyneth Findlay *
Fifteen Seconds of Peace | Lauren Cole
We Don’t Owe Them Sh*t. Change My Mind | Finnely King-Scoular *
When One Tomb Closes, Another One Opens | Finnely King-Scoular
Leave Women Alone: Some Opinions on Pregnancy | Katie Van Zanen *
Pennywise, Trump, and a Small Town Girl | Laura Sheppard Song *
Between Me and God | Laura Sheppard Song *
Too Much Wes Anderson: A Review of The French Dispatch | Laura Sheppard Song
The Pessimist’s Guide to the Graduate Seminar | Chad Westra
Gloom and Doom | Chad Westra
Tell the Bees | Emily Joy Stroble
Neon Sea Creatures and the In-Between | Mitchell Barbee
My Life Stages (Seen Through Transportation) | Mitchell Barbee
My Greatest Comfort Song Reminds Me of Death | Mitchell Barbee
Simplicity and Music Theory: An Interview with Indie Artist Dashiel | Joshua Polanski *
An Incomplete List of the Worst Book Covers I’ve Ever Seen | Annaka Koster *
Everybody Loves WWII | Annaka Koster
Yuhki and Me | Annaka Koster
On Being a Chef with an Eating Disorder | Anna Jeffries VanZytveld *
In Defense of YA | Anna Jeffries VanZytveld *
A Reformed Protestant in Purgatory | Anna Jeffries VanZytveld
A Year of Forgiveness | Alex Westenbroek
Fruit and the Chinese American | Joyce Chew (guest writer)
Death on the Prairie | Mattie Hughey (guest writer)
* top ten most-read posts of 2021
Alex Johnson (‘19) is a virtual computer science teacher and a proud resident of Grand Rapids. When she’s not brainstorming the newest project to inflict on her students, she’s cooking semi-vegetarian food, reading too many romance books, and playing rhythm games.
