Year-End Lists

John Freeman: 15 Best Fiction Books of 2016, as published by The Boston Globe

[see also 2017]

• The Underground Railroad
  Colson Whitehead
• Ema the Captive
  César Aira
• LaRose
  Louise Erdrich
• In the Café of Lost Youth
  Patrick Modiano
• Barkskins
  Annie Proulx
• The Queen of the Night
  Alexander Chee
• The Fox Was Ever the Hunter
  Herta Müller
• The Year of the Runaways
  Sunjeev Sahota
• My Name Is Lucy Barton
  Elizabeth Strout
• The Good Lieutenant
  Whitney Terrell
• Thus Bad Begins
  Javier Marias
• Zero K
  Don DeLillo
• Our Young Man
  Edmund White
• The Story of a Brief Marriage
  Anuk Arudpragasam
• Secondhand Time

  The Last of the Soviets
  Svetlana Alexievich

Sonia Saraiya: 20 Best TV Shows of 2016, as published by Variety

[see also 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015]

1. Atlanta
2. Silicon Valley
3. The Girlfriend Experience
4. Halt and Catch Fire
5. Fleabag
6. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
7. Better Call Saul
8. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
9. Insecure
10. BoJack Horseman
11. Rectify
12. Frontline
13. Black Mirror
14. The Real O’Neals
15. Lemonade
16. Veep
17. Superstore
18. The Crown
19. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
20. Lady Dynamite

Maureen Ryan: 20 Best TV Shows of 2016, as published by Variety

[see also 2021 • 2018 • 2017]

1. Jane the Virgin
2. Rectify
3. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
4. Black-ish
5. The Americans
6. One Mississippi
7. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
8. Atlanta
9. Insecure
10. Better Things
11. Halt and Catch Fire
12. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
13. Catastrophe
14. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
15. O.J.: Made in America
16. Fleabag
17. Transparent
18. Stranger Things
19. Superstore
20. Marvel’s Agent Carter

Miriam Bale: Top 14 Films of 2016, as submitted to Village Voice Film Poll and posted to Twitter (14 films in total)

[see also 2010s • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012]

1. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
2. The Love Witch
   Anna Biller
3. Lemonade
   Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso
4. Love & Friendship
   Whit Stillman
5. No Home Movie
   Chantal Akerman
6. Elle
   Paul Verhoeven
7. Certain Women
   Kelly Reichardt
8. Cemetery of Splendor
   Apichatpong Weerasethakul
9. Cameraperson
   Kirsten Johnson
10. Dirty Grandpa
    Dan Mazer

As listed on Twitter

• Moonlight
  Barry Jenkins
• Sully
  Clint Eastwood
• The Love Witch
  Anna Biller
• Lemonade
  Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso
• Personal Shopper
  Olivier Assayas
• Love & Friendship
  Whit Stillman
• Elle
  Paul Verhoeven
• The Dreamed Path
  Angela Schanelec
• No Home Movie
  Chantal Akerman
• The Dreamed Ones
  Ruth Beckermann

This list contributes to:

• Village Voice Film Poll: Top 50 Films of 2016

John Freeman: 10 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The Boston Globe

• Odes
  Sharon Olds
• Night
  Etel Adnan
• Blue Laws

  Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015
  Kevin Young
• White Blight
  Athena Farrokhzad
• The Black Maria
  Aracelis Girmay
• House of Lords and Commons
  Ishion Hutchinson
• Olio
  Tyehimba Jess
• The Little Edges
  Fred Moten
• Look
  Solmaz Sharif
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong

Austin Town Hall: Top 50 Albums of 2016

[see also 2018 • 2017 • 2012 • 2011]

1. I Had A Dream That You Were Mine
   Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
2. Thought Rock Fish Scale
   Nap Eyes
3. My Woman
   Angel Olsen
4. Deluxe
   Omni
5. Running out of Love
   The Radio Dept.
6. Nosebleed Weekend
   The Coathangers
7. Second Home
   DOGBRETH
8. Blue Wave
   Operators
9. Wordless Wonder
   Real Numbers
10. Next Thing
    Frankie Cosmos
11. Around the House
    Chook Race
12. A Moon Shaped Pool
    Radiohead
13. Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic
    The Gotobeds
14. At Hope’s Ravine
    Holy Esque
15. You Yang
    Lost Animal
16. Up to Anything
    The Goon Sax
17. Here
    Teenage Fanclub
18. EARS
    Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
19. Winter Wheat
    John K. Samson
20. Lost at the Party
    Terry Malts
21. The Birds Outside Sang
    Florist
22. Epoch
    Tycho
23. Adult Contemporaries
    Ablebody
24. You Know Who You Are
    Nada Surf
25. Running from the Blows
    Adult Books
26. Life of Pause
    Wild Nothing
27. Midnight Run
    Connections
28. Mangy Love
    Cass McCombs
29. It’s Immaterial
    Black Marble
30. Absolute Loser
    Fruit Bats
31. Plaza
    Quilt
32. As If Apart
    Chris Cohen
33. Sun Dog
    AT / ALL
34. High in Place
    EZTV
35. The Wink
    Tim Presley
36. Relaxing Death
    Useless Eaters
37. Spilt Milk
    Pete Astor
38. Electric Soul Unity
    Happy Diving
39. Beneath a Yellow Moon
    I Have A Tribe
40. Animal Races
    Cool Ghouls
41. Activity
    Holy Balm
42. Endless Summer
    Big Wave Riders
43. Concrete Vision
    Still Parade
44. Everybody’s Dying to Meet You
    Flowers
45. Graceland
    Steve Adamyk Band
46. Lisa Marie Airplane Tour
    So Cow
47. Astronaut Meets Appleman
    King Creosote
48. The Great Leap Backward
    Bubblegum Lemonade
49. Jettison the Valley
    Carter Tanton
50. Wolves of Want
    Bent Shapes

Ben Kenigsberg: 10 Best Films of 2016, as submitted to The Village Voice Film poll, Indiewire poll, and the survey at RogerEbert.com

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Manchester by the Sea
   Kenneth Lonergan
2. Toni Erdmann
   Maren Ade
3. O.J.: Made in America
   Ezra Edelman
4. Silence
   Martin Scorsese
5. Elle
   Paul Verhoeven
6. Hell or High Water
   David Mackenzie
7. Everybody Wants Some!!
   Richard Linklater
8. Kate Plays Christine
   Robert Greene
9. The Other Side
   Roberto Minervini
10. Hogtown
    Daniel Nearing

Dennis Cooper: 52 Favorite Books of 2016 (“in no order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2012]

Fiction

• Suite for Barbara Loden
  Nathalie Leger
• Dodge Rose
  Jack Cox
• Ninety-Nine Stories of God
  Joy Williams
• Transitory
  Tobias Carroll
• Patricide
  D. Foy
• Experimental Animals (A Reality Fiction)
  Thalia Field
• The Orchid Stories
  Kenward Elmslie
• A Bestiary
  Lily Hoang
• The Knack of Doing
  Jeremy M. Davies
• Flamingos
  Grant Maierhofer
• Dreamlives of Debris
  Lance Olsen
• In Their Arms
  Thomas Moore
• The Map of the System of Human Knowledge
  James Tadd Adcox
• Novi Sad
  Jeff Jackson
• Thank You
  Zachary German
• A Collapse of Horses
  Brian Evenson
• I Hate the Internet
  Jarett Kobek
• Soft Split
  Szilvia Molnar
• Falter Kingdom
  Michael J. Seidlinger
• Tiny Fish that Only Want to Kiss
  Gary Indiana
• Margaret the First
  Danielle Dutton
• Weed Monks
  Chris Dankland
• Black Lavender Milk
  Black Lavender Milk
• The Sleep Garden
  Jim Krusoe
• You With Your Memory Are Dead
  Gary J Shipley
• Marigold
  Troy James Weaver
• Abahn Sabana David
  Marguerite Duras
• The In-Betweens
  Matthew Simmons
• Sex and Death
  Ben Tanzer
• Don’t Leave Me
  Stig Sæterbakken
• WAVES
  Lucy K Shaw
• A Tree or a Person or a Wall
  Matt Bell

Nonfiction

• Communal Nude

  Collected Essays
  Robert Glück
• Bresson on Bresson

  Interviews, 1943-1983
  Robert Bresson
• I/O

  A Memoir
  Brian Oliu
• AUTOMANIAS
  Sara Tuss Erick
• So Sad Today

  Personal Essays
  Melissa Broder
• Girlfriends, Ghosts, and Other Stories
  Robert Walser
• Bandit

  A Daughter’s Memoir
  Molly Brodak
• The Sky Isn’t Blue
  Janice Lee
• Super Mario Bros. 3
  Alyse Knorr
• The Narco-Imaginary

  Essays Under the Influence
  Ramsey Scott
• The Complete Madame Realism and Other Stories
  Lynne Tillman
• Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970
  David Toop
• My Damage

  The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
  Keith Morris and Jim Ruland
• hatefuck the reader
  Penny Goring
• WASTELAND
  New Juche
• Say Bye to Reason and Hi to Everything
  Andrew Durbin, Dodie Bellamy, Cecilia Corrigan, Amy De’Ath, Lynne Tillman, and Jackie Wang
• A Barbarian in Asia
  Henri Michaux
• Loud Idiots
  Sarah Jean Alexander
• An Individual Note Of Music, Sound And Electronics
  Daphne Oram
• Shock and Awe

  Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century
  Simon Reynolds

Marya E. Gates: Favorite Fifteen Films of 2016

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
2. American Honey
   Andrea Arnold
3. Bridget Jones's Baby
   Sharon Maguire
4. The Lobster
   Yorgos Lanthimos
5. Lemonade
   Beyoncé Knowles Carter and Kahlil Joseph with Jonas Åkerlund, Melina Matsoukas, Dikayl Rimmasch, Mark Romanek and Tod Tourso
6. Christine
   Antonio Campos
7. Jackie
   Pablo Larraín
8. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
   Taika Waititi
9. 13th
   Ava DuVernay
10. Hidden Figures
    Theodore Melfi
11. The Invitation
    Karyn Kusama
12. Certain Women
    Kelly Reichardt
13. The Edge of Seventeen
    Kelly Fremon Craig
14. Born to Be Blue
    Robert Budreau
15. Maggie’s Plan
    Rebecca Miller

Uproxx: 20 Best Films of 2016

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017]

1. La La Land
   Damien Chazelle
2. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
3. Manchester by the Sea
   Kenneth Lonergan
4. Everybody Wants Some!!
   Richard Linklater
5. Toni Erdmann
   Maren Ade
6. 20th Century Women
   Mike Mills
7. Jackie
   Pablo Larraín
8. O.J.: Made in America
   Ezra Edelman
9. Zootopia
   Byron Howard and Rich Moore
10. Paterson
    Jim Jarmusch
11. Don’t Think Twice
    Mike Birbiglia
12. Arrival
    Denis Villeneuve
13. Sing Street
    John Carney
14. American Honey
    Andrea Arnold
15. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
    Taika Waititi
16. Weiner
    Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg
17. Silence
    Martin Scorsese
18. Hidden Figures
    Theodore Melfi
19. Little Men
    Ira Sachs
20. Rogue One
    Gareth Edwards