Our annual anthology of finalists and winners of the National Magazine Awards 2014 includes Jonathan Franzen's eloquent rumination in National Geographic on the damage we continue to inflict on the environment and its long-lasting consequences; William T. Vollman's blackly comic reflections in Harper's magazine on being the target of an extensive FBI investigation into whether he could be the Unabomber, an anthrax mailer, or a jihadi terrorist; and Ariel Levy's account of extreme travel and great escape to a remote land -- while pregnant -- in the New Yorker.

Other essays include Wright Thompson's bittersweet profile of Michael Jordan's fifty-something second act (ESPN); Jean M. Twenge's revealing look at fertility myths and baby politics (The Atlantic); David Kamp's poignant portrait of a small town recovering from one of the nation's worst mass shootings (Vanity Fair); Janet Reitman's controversial study of the Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Rolling Stone); Ted Conover's eye-opening account of working undercover in a commercial slaughterhouse (Harper's); and Wells Tower's wild tale of bonding with his father at a notorious art and music festival (GQ). The collection also features a short story by the critically acclaimed author Zadie Smith (The New Yorker).

Other contributors: Steven Brill (Time), Emily DePrang (Texas Observer), Kyle Dickman ( Outside), Steve Friedman (Runner's World), J. Hoberman (Tablet Magazine), Stephen Rodrick (New York Times Magazine), Witold Rybczynski (Architect), Matthew Shaer ( The Atavist)