If you love great reporting, features that hit you in the gut, important investigations, or just really well-written nonfiction, you will love this collection.

I’m a huge fan of magazine writing and I have always loved this series. In this day of diminishing print journalism and the increase of wonderful long-form journalism this annual collection is essential. Every year with great excitement I look forward to reading the latest nominees and then the winners. This isn’t a collection one can read in one day. The pieces here are extremely long and for the most part very disturbing and very intense. I thought some of the pieces went on for too long and would have benefitted from being trimmed. I couldn’t finish the entire collection but I did like very much what I read and will return to read the rest of the pieces. It was interesting to note that many of the writers of these selections had already been previous winners. The announcement and publication of this series is one of the highlights of my year and I agree that a lot of the writing was worthy of the title-best of the year. It’s a great series.

Great collection of amazing long-form articles. The one that hit me over the head most (and definitely stayed with me) was "The Landlord and the Tenant", about the lives of two very different individuals and the point where they cross, leading to unfathomable (and totally avoidable) tragedy. Reading this, and then, some entries further down, coming across this fairly self-absorbed lady describing her decades-long boo-hoo-poor-me infused travails on Tinder, a place she actually considers a way to find her True Love (!), was an interesting experience. That story really was an exercise in superficiality bordering on stupidity, and one I definitely could have done without.
Needless to say, I thought not every single one of these pieces merited inclusion in this anthology ("Tinder Hearted" just being the worst offender), but a book this size invariably includes some clunkers. Thankfully, the rest more than makes up for them.

I don't have a ton of time to read magazines, and this is perfect for someone like me! The collected "best" articles from the year. Tons of interesting topics and all well-written. I highly recommend!

A well-curated collection of the most salient stories of 2023, all in one handy volume. My favorites were Caitlin Dickerson’s searing reporting on the Trump Administration’s family separation policy and Jia Tolentino’s essay on the Post-Roe era.

Another entry in the incredible series "Best American Magazine Writing."

It's now long defunct, but I used to be a big fan of the "Best American Crime Writing" series, most often and most capably edited by Otto Penzler and Thomas Cook. The beauty of that series was that the editors pulled from both prestige publications as well as regional magazines and lesser known outfits (it was through this series I discovered the wonders of Texas Monthly's archives), and a variety of approach to form and subject, from straight-ahead crime reporting to inventive first person investigations or philosophical meditations. All of it of the highest quality.

This series largely, or at least this entry, seems to follow the same formula, just wider in scope and depth. Sidney Holt has drawn from big name magazines like The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, etc., independent darlings like The Believer and Stranger's Guide, the venerable New York Magazine (a feature-generating beast), and outlets as diverse as ProPublica, STAT, and ESPN. The pieces themselves range from the merely very good to the impossibly good, and range from the straightforward to the creatively playful. Reportage, profiles, investigatory features, and even a short story from the Paris Review, mirroring the practice of a title's having one selection of fiction. And there's so much of it--600 pages for one to read in spurts during lunch breaks and train rides and a few moments caught before bed.

Tremendous Start-to-Finish
-Rozina Ali's "The Battle for Baby L" was just incredible. Even if you don't pick up this volume, you should seek out this article.
-Jia Tolentino's triptych of post-Roe New Yorker pieces do everything you want from Tolentino, she who can do anything. Personal reflections mixed with powerful writing capturing the most urgent and harrowing aspects of today's cultural war and ascendance of elite reaction.
-Caitlin Dickerson's "We Need to Take Away Children" will make you sick. It's another piece that should be sought out even if you don't read this book.
-Michelle de Kretser's short story "Winter Term" made me want to buy every novel this woman has ever published (two now dwell on my wishlist).
-Namwali Serpell's "She's Capital!" demonstrates why a subscription to the New York Review of Books may just be worth that 100 bucks. Each issue will have great commentary, good reviews and some infuriating ones, and every once in a while something transcendent like Serpell's disquisition on Emile Zola, Black Twitter, the Whore as represented in literature--I mean, just read it.
-Jazmine Hughes' "Viola Davis, Inside Out" serves as the celebrity interview/profile, but it is so much better than those words suggest. After I originally read this in the NYT Magazine, it prompted me to immediately order Viola Davis' memoir.

Surprise Hits
-Clint Smith's "Monuments to the Unthinkable" concerns Holocaust memorials in Germany. You may think you've already read something like (I certainly did going in), but it's much, much better than another surface level piece about "How Dachau Makes Me Feel." Smith's comparing and contrasting the various memorials, speaking with designers, German Jews, some politicians, and providing a throughline from the post war period until today actually provided for a thought-provoking read.
-Allison P. Davis' "Tinder Hearted" may at first blush seem like just another fun but thin New York first-person quickie on dating. It is fun but of surprising depth without any sort of false wallowing.

I felt that the weakest piece was probably Chris Heath's "The Militiamen, the Governor, and the Kidnapping That Wasn’t" and only because I felt that Heath (or his editors) should have more firmly outlined the prosecution's theory and offered more evidence to support his personal impressions of the defendants. Also, I think it suffered from not placing the case in more historical context with respect to past instances of problematic FBI informant led terrorism investigations (e.g., the Newburgh Six). Again, this is not to criticize the work as wholly deficient, just that to my mind it was only about 2/3rds there.

Finally, if crime reporting is your thing, Natalie So's "Aristocrat, Inc." and Tom Junod & Paula Lavigne's "Untold" will scratch that itch.

This interesting collection of some of the best American feature writing included many stories of heroics and personal redemeption in the face of challenges great and small. The accolades these stories have recieved are much deserved. Most notably the collection focuses on stories that speak to larger issues in our societies -- highly recommended.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was chock-full of gloom. UGH!! There were a couple of decent chapters, but for the most part just depressing. No wonder younger people seem to not enjoy life. Many of these I skimmed after a few pages. I know life can be horrible and unfair, but I'd rather not spend my spare time reading about it. Maybe it's my imagination, but these seem longer than a magazine article.

I do not recommend.

So much of the world’s best reporting is about hard things—violence, war, racism, the failure of social systems—and the pieces collected in 2023’s The Best American Magazine Writing are no different. The Battle for Baby L by Rozina Ali, from the New York Times Magazine, is the outrageous story of how a US army contractor used legal loopholes to effectively (allegedly) steal a baby from Afghanistan. From The Atlantic, Clint Smith’s Monuments to the Unthinkable is a powerful, thoughtful, and well-written reflection on how the US can honour the victims of slavery and anti-Black racism. We Need to Take Away Children by Caitlin Dickerson in The Atlantic is the rest of the iceberg beneath what the public saw of the Trump administration’s separation of children of migrants from parents at the southern border. The Landlord and the Tenant by Raquel Rutledge and Ken Armstrong (ProPublica and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), The Militiamen, the Governor, and the Kidnapping That Wasn’t by Chris Heath (Esquire), The Year of the Nepo Baby by Nate Jones (New York), and Tinder Hearted by Allison P. Davis (NewYork) also make for excellent reading.

This is a great collection of incisive reporting and fantastic writing about important topics and stories that caught public attention, and is highly recommended. Thank you to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for access.

A new volume of the best magazine writing, selected and honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

As every year, you will find a lot of good writing in these pages, with many pieces you might otherwise have missed. It is interesting how many of them revolve around children and family - some of them heartbreaking. But what I found most rewarding was a forgotten story about Silicon Valley's "drug of the nineties," computer chips, and all the criminal activities surrounding them.

Thanks to the publisher, Columbia University Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This is a very excellent book for people who are interested in long-form magazine reporting. But it is not a book I would recommend to a layperson who just picks up a magazine every once in a while, or who just reads the occasional viral magazine piece (like me). These stories are compelling, almost seizingly so, and meticulously researched, and long, and full of spirit. They are also, for some reason, almost uniformly depressing and stressful as hell. What if things were nice occasionally?!

Highlights, for me, included: Caitlin Dickerson’s “We Need to Take Away Children” from The Atlantic; “Tinder Hearted” by Allison P. Davis, from New York; Jia Tolentino’s New Yorker column on abortion; and Clint Smith’s “Monuments to the Unthinkable,” also originally in The Atlantic. (It is worth noting, though, that all of these touch on subjects that I was already interested in!) The first essay, "The Battle for Baby L.," by Rozina Ali, originally in New York Times Magazine, is also quite excellent, though a gut punch. But they're all gut punches. Maybe I'm just a weenie.

Sidney Holt (ed.) American Magazine Writing Columbia University Press 2023.
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The introduction is written by Natasha Perlman, executive director, Glamour but does not appear in this uncorrected proof. The list of contents provides an overview of the topics that are covered, as well as the magazines which offered the prizes around which this collection focusses: 'The Battle for Baby L.' Rozina Ali (New York Times Magazine); 'She Never Hurt Her Kids. So Why Is a Mother Serving More Time Than the Man Who Abused Her Daughter?' Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones; 'Aristocrat Inc.' Natalie So, The Believer; 'Monuments to the Unthinkable' Clint Smith, The Atlantic; 'The Landlord and the Tenant', Raquel Rutledge and Ken Armstrong, Pro-Republica and Milwaukee Journal; 'Death Sentence', Nicholas Florko Stat, Public Interest; 'The Time to Pass Paid Leave Is Now' Natasha Pearlman, Glamour; 'A PostRoe Threat and the PostRoe Eera and Is Abortion Sacred?' Jia Tolentino, New Yorker; 'We Need to Take Away Children', Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic; 'The Militiamen, the governor, and the Kidnapping That Wasn't, Chris Heath, Esquire; 'The Year of the Nepo Baby Nate Jones, New York; 'Acid Church, Courtney Desiree Morris, Stranger's Guide; 'Tinder hearted', Allison P. Davis, New York; '"She's Capital"', Namwali Serpell, New York Review of Books; 'Viola Davis, Inside Out', Jazmine Hughes, New York Times Magazine; 'Light and Shadow', Raffi Katchadourian, New Yorker; 'Winter term' Michelle de Kretser, Paris Review; and 'Untold', Tom Junrod and Paula Lavigne, ESPN Digital.

Although all the titles are not necessarily self-explanatory, there are enough to make the case that the collection covers a wide range of topics. Each provides a compelling story, and although some are more colourful and dramatic, others more thoughtful, and others rework old ideas in a new form with additional contemporary insights each contribution makes a valuable contribution to the collection. Each also makes a valuable contribution to the reader's knowledge, and access to new insights. However, these are disparate articles, necessarily because of the focus of the collection, and therefore have no theme - to me a shortcoming in a collection. This raises the issue of what makes a collection that works, and the value of a thematic approach rather than one that concentrates on, as in this case, prize winning articles. Although the latter can illuminate what stories are topical, written well enough to become a winner or finalist, what magazines are using to assess stories, for example, are these matters those on which to base a collection?

Turning to the articles that have been chosen, some examples provide a flavour of the work covered in the collection. Although 'The Battle for Baby L' concentrates on the story of the fight for custody of a baby orphaned during an American raid in Afghanistan it has much broader application than the story of a baby, an American couple and Baby L's biological family. The story of a football player, his teammates, the coach and the college, Penn State also raises broad ranging questions beyond the sexual predator at its centre. Neither article follows through on the broader issues, although they are admirably dense with detail.
Aristocrat Inc. lends itself admirably to this approach. The world of computer chips, their value, and the crime that can surround them, is another way of looking at the Silicone Valley opportunities, those that benefitted from them and those that contributed. A strong and compelling story! Similarly, The Landlord and the Tenant and Death Sentence work well as a compendium of information.

Monuments to the Unthinkable is resonant with detail, and thoughtful analysis. The questions it raises are valuable, partially answered, and open to further discussion, analysis and contemplation of alternative answers. Here detail and analysis are intertwined with commentary that almost forces the reader to engage with the momentous questions and declarations made.

As a collection of disparate articles, chosen only on the basis ofon their being finalists or prize winners, the positives include the value of some of the articles in publicising issues with the detail that is not available through other sources. Here, the detail is packaged in an accessible form. While lack of a theme is one of my concerns, it is fair to say that in some ways a theme is discernible in that in this collection hidden stories, which include compelling and copious detail, are brought into the open. However, it is a collection whose shortcoming remains: this is a group of disparate articles, which because of a lack of unified purpose, might limit to a few those that are of interest to individual readers.

Interesting format for magazine articles that you might have missed over the last year or were unable to read because of paywalls. I didn't agree with all the selections but it is good to see the different styles and features from around the country

This was such an amazing collection of magazine articles! I particularly enjoyed the Viola Davis piece and the piece on nepo babies.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC via Netgalley.

This is the first volume of this type of Best American series I’ve read. And I guess, I am proud to say that I had actually read most of them before.
Many of the essays address women and women’s issues. It is no surprise that an essay/report about the post-Roe era makes the cut. But what is also include are essays that showcase how society’s view of motherhood effects the lives of women. From the story of a woman being convicted for the deaths of her children in a fire while her landlord faces no time or lawsuit (“She Never Hurt Her Kids” by Samantha Michaels) to a call for paid family leave by Natasha Pearlman to experiences on Tinder by Alison Davis. There is reporting about the separation of parents and child at the border, detailing how the policy went into effect (“We Need to Take Away Children” by Caitlin Dickerson) but also a detailed article about the fate of a baby girl from Afghanistan who was taken from her relatives and allowed to be adopted by an American couple.
It isn’t all serious issues, though. There is Jazmine Hughes excellent profile of Viola Davis, which was a pleasure to read again. Serpell’s thoughtful essay about prostitutes in literature, focusing a bit on the book Nana. There is “Acid Church” by Courney Desiree Morris which is about so many things that have to do with heart and community/tribe.
There are two essays that I did raise my eyebrows at. The first was the one about Nepo Babys. While I am aware of the debate that seemed to happed early this year, I just found the whole topic to be just “well, yeah, that’s not new” so the essay by Nate Jones just got a shrug from people. And then there is Chris Heath’s essay “The Militiamen, the Governor and the Kidnapping that Wasn’t”. This is about the men charged with plotting to go after Governor Whitmer. Heath’s essay takes a good hard look at the men as well as how they were portrayed in the media and the issues with the case. It isn’t that Heath is wrong per se in some of the issues he addresses. It’s just that even if you believe the informant lead the men along, there is still the disturbing sentences that the men uttered about the Governor. In other words, whether Heath intended it or not (and I don’t think he did) the essay almost suggests that verbally talking about violence against women isn’t anything that bad and is just what the average man does. It was the type of essay that while you know is good and does raise some valid issues, you are also not surprised it was written by a man, about other men, for a magazine that is targets men.
Still, this collection, and even Heath’s essay, are well worth reading.

I thought this anthology was wonderful. I loved their selection of magazine articles. Award winners for sure. This was the first type of collection I have read like this and found it to be enjoyable. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.