Sid Holt

The American Society of Magazine Editors

Our annual anthology of finalists and winners of the National Magazine Awards 2014 includes Max Chafkin's oral history of Apple from Fast Company, Joshua Davis's intimate portrait of tech pioneer John McAfee's personal and public breakdown from Wired; Kyle Dickman's haunting investigation into the preventable death of nineteen firemen battling an Arizona wildfire; and Ariel Levy's emotional account of extreme travel to a remote land—while pregnant—from The New Yorker. Other essays include Wright Thompson's bittersweet profile of Michael Jordan's fifty-something second act (ESPN the Magazine); Jean M. Twenge's revealing look at fertility myths and baby politics (The Atlantic); Janet Reitman's controversial study of the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Rolling Stone); Luke Mogelson's harrowing experience accompanying asylum seekers on a potentially deadly sea voyage to Australia (New York Times Magazine); Lisa Miller's poignant report from Newtown, Connecticut, as the town tries to cope with the aftermath of one of the nation's worst mass shootings (New York); Emily Nussbaum's critiques of gender and politics on television (The New Yorker); and Witold Rybczynski's poetic engagement with modern architecture (Architect). The collection concludes with the award-winning poem "Elegies" by Kathleen Ossip (Poetry) and "The Embassy of Cambodia," a short story by Zadie Smith (The New Yorker).

The Best American Magazine Writing 2014

This year's Best American Magazine Writing features outstanding writing on contentious issues including incarceration, policing, sexual assault, labor, technology, and environmental catastrophe. Selections include Paul Ford's ambitious "What Is Code?" (Bloomberg Businessweek), an innovative explanation of how programming works, and "The Really Big One," by Kathryn Schulz (The New Yorker), which exposes just how unprepared the Pacific Northwest is for a major earthquake. Joining them are Meaghan Winter's exposé of crisis pregnancy centers (Cosmopolitan) and a chilling story of police prejudice that allowed a serial rapist to run free (the Marshall Project in partnership with ProPublica). Also included is Shane Smith's interview with Barack Obama about mass incarceration (Vice). Other selections demonstrate a range of long-form styles and topics across print and digital publications. The imprisoned hacker and activist Barrett Brown pens hilarious dispatches from behind bars, including a scathing review of Jonathan Franzen's fiction (The Intercept). "The New American Slavery" (Buzzfeed) documents the pervasive exploitation of guest workers, and Luke Mogelson explores the purgatorial fate of an undocumented man sent back to Honduras (New York Times Magazine). Joshua Hammer harrowingly portrays Sierra Leone's worst Ebola ward as even the staff succumb to the disease (Matter). And in "The Friend," Matthew Teague's wife is afflicted with cancer, his friend moves in, and the result is a devastating narrative of relationships and death (Esquire). The collection concludes with Jenny Zhang's "How It Feels," an unconventional meditation on the intersection of teenage cruelty and art (Poetry).

The Best American Magazine Writing 2016

Chosen from among the winners and finalists of the 2009 National Magazine Awards, this collection features a mixture of reviews, profiles, and reporting that caught both readers' and critics' attention.

The Best American Magazine Writing 2009

Features articles that were judged finalists and winners in the National Magazine Awards, presenting works from leading journalists on such topics as Scientology, the war in Afghanistan, the toll of cancer, and the legacy of David Foster Wallace.

The Best American Magazine Writing 2012

This year's Best American Magazine Writing features articles on politics, culture, sports, sex, race, celebrity, and more. Selections include Ta-Nehisi Coates's intensely debated "The Case For Reparations" (The Atlantic) and Monica Lewinsky's reflections on the public-humiliation complex and how the rules of the game have (and have not) changed (Vanity Fair). Amanda Hess recounts her chilling encounter with Internet sexual harassment (Pacific Standard) and John Jeremiah Sullivan shares his investigation into one of American music's greatest mysteries (New York Times Magazine). The anthology also presents Rebecca Traister's acerbic musings on gender politics (The New Republic) and Jerry Saltz's fearless art criticism (New York). James Verini reconstructs an eccentric love affair against the slow deterioration of Afghanistan in the twentieth century (The Atavist); Roger Angell offers affecting yet humorous reflections on life at ninety-three (The New Yorker); Tiffany Stanley recounts her poignant experience caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's (National Journal); and Jonathan Van Meter takes an entertaining look at fashion's obsession with being a social-media somebody (Vogue). Brian Phillips describes his surreal adventures in the world of Japanese ritual and culture (Grantland), and Emily Yoffe reveals the unforeseen casualties in the effort to address the college rape crisis (Slate). The collection concludes with a work of fiction by Donald Antrim, exploring the geography of loss. (The New Yorker).

The Best American Magazine Writing 2015

In a time of reckoning, this year’s National Magazine Awards finalists and winners focus on abuse of power in many forms. Ronan Farrow’s Pulitzer Prize–winning revelation of Harvey Weinstein’s depredations (New Yorker), along with Rebecca Traister’s charged commentary for New York and Laurie Penny’s incisive Longreads columns, speak to the urgency of the #MeToo moment. Ginger Thompson’s reporting on the botched U.S. operation that triggered a cartel massacre in Mexico (National Geographic/ProPublica) and Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal’s New York Times Magazine investigation of the civilian casualties of drone strikes in Iraq amplify the voices of those harmed by U.S. actions abroad. And Alex Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave” (Atlantic) is a powerful attempt to come to terms with the cruelty that was in plain sight in his own upbringing. Responding to the overt racism of the Trump era, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “My President Was Black” (Atlantic) looks back at the meaning of Obama. Howard Bryant (ESPN the Magazine) and Bim Adewunmi (Buzzfeed) offer incisive columns on the intersections of pop culture, sports, race, and politics. In addition, David Wallace-Wells reveals the coming disaster of our climate-change-ravaged future (New York); Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham’s ESPN the Magazine reporting exposes the seamy sides of the NFL; Nina Martin and Renee Montagne investigate America’s shameful record on maternal mortality (NPR/ProPublica); Ian Frazier asks “What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?” (Smithsonian); and Alex Mar considers “Love in the Time of Robots” (Wired with Epic Magazine). The collection concludes with Kristen Roupenian’s viral hit short story “Cat Person” (New Yorker).

The American Society of Magazine Editors

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