For a long time, I’ve been a fan of The Electric Typewriter, which collects and organizes the best nonfiction published anywhere. So when I signed up for TETW newsletter a little while ago, I was honored when editor Dan Toller asked me to put together a list of my favorite stories. He was also kind enough to assemble a page of my own stories, which was fun to see: 20 Great Articles and Essays by Frank Bures.

If you’re interested, the stories I picked are below. You can sign up for The Electric Typewriter substack here, and here is the full post: Frank Bures’ Favourite Articles: Classic nonfiction from one of the best in the business.

With these stories:

Mississippi Drift by Matthew Power – River vagrants in the age of Wal-Mart

The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert – Meet the last of a dying breed

The Anxiety of Influencers by Barrett Swanson – Educating the TikTok generation

What Is Poetry? And Does it Pay? by Jake Silverstein – “Have you written a poem?” the notice began. I had written a poem.

The Source of All Things by Tracy Ross – What if your favorite place in the world was ground zero for your greatest strengths and your deepest fears?

War Wounds by Tom Bissell – A father and son return to Vietnam

Letter to Daniel by Fergal Keane – Since you’ve arrived, days have melted into night and back again and we are learning a new grammar, a long sentence whose punctuation marks are feeding and winding and nappy changing and these occasional moments of quiet.

Can You Step in the Same River Twice? By David Quammen – Change is inevitable. When it happens in our relationships, it’s best to take a cue from the currents and go with the flow.

Shadow Of A Nation by Gary Smith – The Crows, once proud warriors, now seek glory—but often find tragedy—in basketball

The Truck Stop Killer By Vanessa Veselka – He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls. Girls who’d run away. Girls no one would miss. In the summer of 1985, the author was such a girl…

The King of the Ferret Leggers by Donald Katz – “No jockstraps allowed. No underpants—nothin’ whatever. And it’s no good with tight trousers, mind ye. Little bah-stards have to be able to move around inside there from ankle to ankle.”

Matricide by Meghan Daum – People who wern’t there like to say my mother died at home surrounded by loving family