The Best American Magazine Writing 2006

by The American Society of Magazine Editors (Editor), Graydon Carter (Introduction)

Overview

In the magazine world, no recognition is more highly coveted or prestigious than a National Magazine Award. Annually, members of the American Society of Magazine Editors, in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, select the year's most dynamic, original, provocative, and influential magazine stories. The winning and finalist pieces in this anthology represent outstanding work by some of the most eminent writers in America as well as rising literary and journalistic talents. This prestigious collection includes stories that cover a variety of subjects from Elizabeth Kolbert's investigation into global warming in the New Yorker and James Bamford's look at the PR campaign behind the Iraq War in Rolling Stone to Chris Heath's remarkable profile of Merle Haggard in GQ and Bill Heavey's hilarious account of teaching his daughter to fish in Field and Stream. Other writers include David Foster Wallace (The Atlantic Monthly), Joyce Carol Oates (The Virginia Quarterly Review), Priscilla Long (The American Scholar), Jesse Katz (Los Angeles Magazine), Marjorie Williams (Vanity Fair), Hendrik Hertzberg (New Yorker), Sven Birkerts (The Virginia Quarterly Review), Erik Reece (Harper's), Wendy Brenner (The Oxford American), John Jeremiah Sullivan (GQ), James Wolcott (Vanity Fair), and Wyatt Mason (Harper's).

Wide-ranging in their style and subjects, these writers' stories inform, surprise, entertain, and provide new perspectives on our world. They also reflect elements that distinguish the best in magazine writing: moral passion, investigative zeal, vivid characters and settings, persistent reporting, and artful writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231139939
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/05/2006
Series:	Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series
Edition description:	2006 ed.
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Graydon Carter is an author and the editor in chief of Vanity Fair.The American Society of Magazine Editors is a nonprofit professional organization for editors of magazines that are edited, published, and sold in the United States. It sponsors the National Magazine Awards in association with the Columbia School of Journalism.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Graydon Carter
1. Genome Tome, by Priscilla Long, The American Scholar
2. The Man Who Sold the War, by James Bamford, Rolling Stone
3. Host, by David Foster Wallace, The Atlantic Monthly
4. The Recruit, by Jesse Katz, Los Angeles Magazine
5. A Matter of Life and Death, by Marjorie Williams, Vanity Fair
6. Mired, by Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker
7. Humboldt's Gift, by Sven Birkerts, The Virginia Quarterly Review
8. Death of a Mountain, by Erik Reece, Harper's
9. The Last Outlaw, by Chris Heath, GQ
10. Love and Death in the Cape Fear Serpentarium, by Wendy Brenner, The Oxford American
11. Girl Meets Bluegill, by Bill Heavey, Field and Stream
12. The Climate of Man—I, by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker
13. Upon This Rock, by John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ
14. Caution: Women Seething, by James Wolcott, Vanity Fair
15. A World Unto Himself, by Wyatt Mason, Harper's
16. Smother, by Joyce Carol Oates, The Virginia Quarterly Review
List of Contributors
2006 National Magazine Award Finalists
National Magazine Award Winners, 1966–2006
ASME Board of Directors, 2005–2006
ASME Mission Statement

Editorial Reviews

These articles manage to sing...In this volume the sum is as great as its parts.

Educational Book Review

As always, this collection offers readers the opportunity to catch up on the best magazine writing they may have missed.

Booklist

The Best American Magazine Writing 2006 contains some stunning essays, picturesque profiles, and one heartbreaking account of personal illness.

Media International Australia - Ben Eltham

You can finally ditch that magazine pile by the bed... The collection is diverse, brainy, and provocative.

The Sacramento Bee - Rachel Leibrock

As always, this collection offers readers the opportunity to catch up on the best magazine writing they may have missed.

Booklist

The Best American Magazine Writing 2006 contains some stunning essays, picturesque profiles, and one heartbreaking account of personal illness.

— Ben Eltham

Media International Australia

You can finally ditch that magazine pile by the bed... The collection is diverse, brainy, and provocative.

— Rachel Leibrock

The Sacramento Bee

Another year, another exemplary collection of the finest magazine writing in the United States. This year's selections include the winners of the National Magazine Awards as well as the competition finalists, who are on par with each other in terms of dexterity and literary impact. Vanessa Grigoriadis ignites the volume with a dazzling-and quite tongue-in-cheek-profile of a fashion icon, "Karl Lagerfeld, Boy Prince of Fashion" (New York Magazine). In "He Knew He Was Right" (the New Yorker), Ian Parker offers a focused look at iconoclastic literary and political critic Christopher Hitchens. Caroline Alexander gives a respectful nod to unrivaled Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner in "Murdering the Impossible" (National Geographic), and Alex Ross pens a stylish appreciation of Wolfgang Mozart in "The Storm of Style" (New Yorker). In what may be the best piece of the bunch, "The Other Side of Hate" (GQ), Andrew Corsello vividly chronicles the unlikely alliance in economically taxed Zimbabwe of Paul Neshangwe, a black preacher, and Jim Steele, a white agronomist. Severity of subject matter is evident in William Langewiesche's harrowing "Rules of Engagement" (Vanity Fair), about an Iraqi civilian massacre (by U.S. Marine soldiers) in the country's western city of Haditha. Likewise in C.J. Chivers's "The School" (Esquire), a breathlessly detailed piece about the 2004 Beslan tragedy. Human-interest writing shines in Susan Casey's ominous and unsettling report, "Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic . . . Are We?" (Best Life), which documents the discovery and investigation of an enormous floating landfill of plastic waste-the size of Texas-some 800 miles north of Hawaii; and in Janet Reitman'seye-opening "Inside Scientology" (Rolling Stone). A brilliant compilation.

Kirkus Reviews