Pushcart 2026 L: Ryan Van Meter, “An essay about coyotes” (non-fiction) from The Iowa Review #53.3

Lauren Strohacker: Coyote Anthropophony But it begins with moths. Dead ones specifically, as described in essays by Virginia Woolf and Annie Dillard. Virginia’s was first, published in 1942, a year after her death. Annies came thirty years later. On the chalkboard, I wrote the two titles. It was the first day of a new semester, and I was introducing the concept of the essay because this was an essay writing class. I told my students that life very rarely gives us an essay. Some experience when all we have to do is write it down. These are the things I say every semester, so I know I said it that semester. “Most often,” I continued, “life gives us anecdotes, and they don’t mean anything until we make them into essays.” Right off the bat, notice a couple of things. It’s not evident from the Pushcart edition, which capitalizes all titles and names, but the title of the essay is not “An Essay About Coyotes” but “An essay about coyotes”. I checked the Iowa Review listing to be sure. It’s…