The Best American Magazine Writing 2020

by Sid Holt (editor)

The Best American Magazine Writing 2020 brings together outstanding writing, from in-depth reporting to incisive criticism. The anthology features excerpts from major projects that challenge American the Washington Post Magazine’s “Prison” issue, detailing the scope of mass incarceration, and the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project,” which recenters the nation’s history around slavery and its legacies. It includes extraordinary globe-spanning journalism, including pieces on the genocide against the Rohingya (New York Times Magazine) and the unintended consequences of a dengue fever vaccine (Fortune). Pamela Colloff details prosecutors’ reliance on an untrustworthy jailhouse informant (New York Times Magazine in partnership with ProPublica), and a ProPublica series investigates the disaster that befell the USS Fitzgerald.The anthology showcases the work of remarkable stylists, including Jia Tolentino’s cultural commentary (New Yorker) and Ligaya Mishan’s columns on food and culture ( The New York Times Style Magazine). Columns by s.e. smith consider disability (Catapult), and the DeafBlind poet John Lee Clark writes about art he can touch (Poetry). Jordan Kisner visits a Martha Washington–themed debutante ball in Texas near the Mexican border for The Believer, and Jacob Baynham offers a moving portrait of his father-in-law (Georgia Review). Arundhati Roy excoriates the increasing authoritarianism of Modi’s India (The Nation in partnership with Type Media Center). The anthology concludes with Jonathan Escoffery’s short story of homesickness for Jamaica, “Under the Ackee Tree” (Paris Review).

Genres: Essays, Journalism, Nonfiction

478 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2021

Reviews

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you are a keen fan of press journalism and try to read as much as you can, it's impossible to keep in touch with everything that is published in the US. That's why I like so much such collections as "The Best American Magazine Writing". It gives you a good overview and brings very varied stories, and from a very broad range of publications, not only the obvious ones like "NYT" or "New Yorker". It also doesn't focus only on the US, and I've found the examples of international reporting particularly compelling.

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

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the type off Anthologies I live for. I love investigative journalism and excellent magazine articles! I love them, but with media, newspapers, magazines, television, and documentaries, it is just about impossible to keep up with every magazine article. This is why I so appreciate that the Editor Sid Holt did all that work for me. The first article by Pamala Colloff is terrific. She addresses how much the DA’s office leans on jailhouse snitches, who often are not reliable sources for death sentence and murder case convictions. This is quite problematic, since often that is the primary evidence used to get a conviction. People in jail are aware that if they can help the DA’s office on a case, it will greatly reduce their upcoming outstanding case. The only people unaware of this are the juries. There was an article from the NYT The 1619 Project which addresses the nations history around slavery and it’s legacy. Another article is by Arundhati Roy, a wonderful journalist to read. These are the top articles and if I did not have this book, I would have missed them.

So, thank you NetGalley for an advance review copy. Please note, a select books that I am honestly interested in reading and do read them and always give my honest opinion. I think that is essential.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Full disclosure, I am writing this review after received an advanced review copy**
This collection of essays will throw you for an intellectual loop. There's something here for everyone, beginning with the first essay on prison snitches, through discussion of slavery and ending with an expose about the USS Fitzgerald. I think one theme that ties these pieces all together (while it may not have been intended) is the idea of unintended consequences. Throughout these essays, the choices that people made affect future outcomes and in some instances, in the long term. The idea of a debutante ball even oozes with the concept.

I was glad, that while political themes pop up throughout the collection, it is not tirade on current politics and dysfunction; quite a breath of fresh air (coming from someone who reads a lot of nonfiction writing).

If you're looking for thought provoking, stimulating writing, I'd encourage you to go to this volume.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays will throw you for an intellectual loop. There's something here for everyone, beginning with the first essay on prison snitches, through discussion of slavery and ending with an expose about the USS Fitzgerald. I think one theme that ties these pieces all together (while it may not have been intended) is the idea of unintended consequences. Throughout these essays, the choices that people made affect future outcomes and in some instances, in the long term. The idea of a debutante ball even oozes with the concept.

I was glad, that while political themes pop up throughout the collection, it is not tirade on current politics and dysfunction; quite a breath of fresh air (coming from someone who reads a lot of nonfiction writing).

If you're looking for thought provoking, stimulating writing, I'd encourage you to go to this volume.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go to any article in this collection and you will find something meaty and interesting to read. Entries are from publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Fortune Magazine, The New Yorker and The Georgia Review, among others. All of the entries’ writers were either a finalist or prize winner in categories including Reporting, a Single Topic Issue, Feature Writing, Profile Writing and more.

This is a collection that includes many serious and thought provoking reads. It is definitely worth the reader’s time and attention.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

[Louise Foerster · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depth, breadth, and excellence of the articles and stories in the annual guide THE BEST AMERICAN MAGAZINE WRITING 2020 was exactly as needed -- exciting, informing, and thought-provoking ideas and stories from some of the very best writers working today. I loved being able to dive into any story, trusting that it would be a solid, entrancing read. I appreciate the advance reader copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

[Wei An See · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerry's Dirt, Nothing Sacred, Under the Ackee Tree were particularly enjoyable. What turned out to be striking and brilliant to me were India: Intimations of an Ending, The Schoolteacher and the Genocide, and Epidemic of Fear.

[Abbas Mehrabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to become a magazine writer, you need to read good samples, and this book has the best of the best English magazine writing.