Our Favorite Essays of 2022

From Behind Prison Walls to a Container Ship Out at Sea to the World’s Largest Refugee Camp, Zócalo’s Contributors Traversed the World to Report on the Human Condition

In 2022, Zócalo’s contributors reported from the front lines of a changing world, looking to foster conversation—and curiosity—about the way we live now.

While selecting just 10 essays from the scores we’ve published this year is no easy task, the ones we’ve highlighted below reflect the best of Zócalo’s special, eclectic blend of ideas journalism with a head and heart. From a first-hand account of incarceration, to a case for how the global fight against authoritarianism can begin in your backyard, to even why, when feeling adrift, one might consider passage by …

Christmas, ’Tis the Season for Scary Stories | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Christmas, ’Tis the Season for Scary Stories

The Spectral Tales We Tell Respond to Our Deepest Desires—Especially on a Long, Dark Winter’s Night

Popularized by Charles Dickens in his 1843 A Christmas Carol, as well as in the yuletide editions of his literary magazine, All the Year Round, ghost stories were regular Christmas …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Zócalo Editorial Director Eryn Brown

Atlanta Is a Place I Think About a Lot When I Think About the World

Eryn Brown is the editorial director of Zócalo Public Square. The moderator of the Zócalo/ALOUD program “How Does L.A. Inspire First-Time Novelists?,” she sat down in our green room to …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Writer Fatimah Asghar

Community is Something You Build

Fatimah Asghar is a poet, novelist, filmmaker, educator, and performer. Their first novel, When We Were Sisters, was published in October. They are the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Author Ryan Lee Wong

Suffering is Not Necessary to Create Meaningful Art

Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On. He holds an MFA in fiction from Rutgers-Newark and has organized exhibitions on Asian American social movements. …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Novelist and Biomedical Informatician Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

You Don’t Have to Write Every Day

Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi is a biomedical informatician and writer. Her book, a novel in stories, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions, was published in September. Before participating in the Zócalo/ALOUD program …