The Best American Magazine Writing 2017 PDF
Preview The Best American Magazine Writing 2017
EDITED BY FOR THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE EDITORS SHANE BAUER • PAMELA COLLOFF • JEFFREY GOLDBERG NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES • MAC MCCLELLAND SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE • DAVID QUAMMEN ZANDRIA F. ROBINSON • BECCA ROTHFELD GEORGE SAUNDERS • GABRIEL SHERMAN • REBECCA SOLNIT SARAH STILLMAN • ANDREW SULLIVAN • MATT TAIBBI Introduction by Nicholas Thompson, EDITOR IN CHIEF of WIRED THE BEST AMERICAN MAGAZINE WRITING 2017 THE BEST AMERICAN MAGAZINE WRITING 2017 Edited by Sid Holt for the American Society of Magazine Editors Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup .columbia .edu Copyright © 2017 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISSN 1541-0978 ISBN 978-0231-18159-4 (pbk.) Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America Cover design: Nancy Rouemy Contents ix Introduction Nicholas Thompson, editor in chief, Wired xv Acknowledgments Sid Holt, chief executive, American Society of Magazine Editors 3 Delusion Is the Thing with Feathers Mac McCelland Audubon Finalist—Feature Writing 25 Worlds Apart Nikole Hannah-Jones New York Times Magazine Winner—Public Interest 55 The Revenge of Roger’s Angels Gabriel Sherman New York Finalist—Reporting vi Contents 79 The List Sarah Stillman The New Yorker Finalist—Public Interest 115 The Improvisational Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee New York Times Magazine Finalist—Reporting 131 Trump Days George Saunders The New Yorker Finalist—Feature Writing 163 President Trump, Seriously and “Appetite for Destruction” and The Fury and Failure of Donald Trump Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Finalist—Columns and Commentary 217 Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic Andrew Sullivan New York Finalist—Essays and Criticism vii Contents 243 The Obama Doctrine Jeffrey Goldberg The Atlantic Finalist—Reporting 303 Yellowstone: Wild Heart of a Continent David Quammen National Geographic Finalist—Single-Topic Issue 311 My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard Shane Bauer Mother Jones Winner—Reporting 413 Bird in a Cage and The Ideology of Isolation and Giantess Rebecca Solnit Harper’s Magazine Winner—Columns and Commentary 437 Ladies in Waiting Becca Rothfeld The Hedgehog Review Finalist—Essays and Criticism viii Contents 453 The Reckoning Pamela Colloff Texas Monthly Finalist—Columns and Commentary 491 Listening for the Country Zandria F. Robinson Oxford American Finalist—Essays and Criticism 513 Permissions 515 List of Contributors Nicholas Thompson Introduction T he protagonists of Mac McClelland’s essay, “Delusion Is the Thing with Feathers,” about the hunt for an ivory-billed woodpecker in Cuba, are two ornitholo- gists, Tim Gallagher and Martjan Lammertink. They’ve traveled far past the place where the road ends; they’ve exhausted them- selves going up and down mountain ridges. The car they came in gave up long ago, even after two oxen helped pull it from a ditch. They’ve looked everywhere they wanted to look and talked to everyone they came to talk to. But they haven’t found the darn bird. Their journey is at its end, and it’s time to give up and head to the airport to go home. Then they realize there’s one last person who might be able to help, one more person who might have seen the bird. And so they sneak away from the rest of their group to head back into the jun- gle. As McLelland writes: “There’s hope! Gallagher thinks, perk- ing up out of his dire exhaustion, in which he barely staggered out of the woods just yesterday. We can still do this!” I won’t tell you what they learn or if they find the bird. Mc- Clelland, who accompanied the ornithologists on the quest, risked her health for the story in a hundred ways, and her essay is a marvel of storytelling. It would be a shame to spoil any of the drama. But I tell the beginning of the anecdote because it’s a way to illustrate the type of reporting that you’ll find in this collection
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