Gossips Can Do It, Too

On Tuesday, when Gossips posted the link to the ten best sentences from fiction or nonfiction chosen by the editors of The American Scholar, a few readers (well, three) were inspired to share their choices for best sentence, either in comments on the blog or privately. That inspired Gossips to wonder, "If The American Scholar can do it, why can't The Gossips of Rivertown?" 

One reason might be that Gossips has no staff of editors to suggest sentences and mull over the possibilities, but that doesn't have to a deterrent. Gossips has its well-read and cultured readers to do the suggesting, and its called upon when needed "editorial advisory board" to do the mulling over.

So, here's the invitation. Email Gossips your choice for the best sentence written in English--a sentence that stopped you in your tracks, a sentence that stunned you with its profundity, its truth, its ability to provoke thought or emotion, a sentence that you savored and remember or wrote down somewhere so you wouldn't forget. It can be from fiction or nonfiction. When you submit it, include the name of the author and the work.

The goal is to imitate The American Scholar and publish the ten best sentences, chosen from those submitted by Gossips readers, on April 16. If fewer than ten sentences are submitted, all of them (or maybe none of them) will be published. If more than ten are submitted, Gossips' editorial advisory board will mull and agonize and select the best ten, which will appear on Gossips on Wednesday, April 16.
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