The Best American Magazine Writing 2021

by Sid Holt (Editor)

Overview

The Best American Magazine Writing 2021 presents outstanding journalism and commentary that reckon with urgent topics, including COVID-19 and entrenched racial inequality. In “The Plague Year,” Lawrence Wright details how responses to the pandemic went astray (New Yorker). Lizzie Presser reports on “The Black American Amputation Epidemic” (ProPublica). In powerful essays, the novelist Jesmyn Ward processes her grief over her husband’s death against the backdrop of the pandemic and antiracist uprisings (Vanity Fair), and the poet Elizabeth Alexander considers “The Trayvon Generation” (New Yorker). Aymann Ismail delves into how “The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd” dealt with the repercussions of the fatal call (Slate). Mitchell S. Jackson scrutinizes the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and how running fails Black America (Runner’s World).

The anthology features remarkable reporting, such as explorations of the cases of children who disappeared into the depths of the U.S. immigration system for years (Reveal) and Oakland’s efforts to rethink its approach to gun violence (Mother Jones). It includes selections from a Public Books special issue that investigate what 2020’s overlapping crises reveal about the future of cities. Excerpts from Marie Claire’s guide to online privacy examine topics from algorithmic bias to cyberstalking to employees’ rights. Aisha Sabatini Sloan’s perceptive Paris Review columns explore her family history in Detroit and the toll of a brutal past and present. Sam Anderson reflects on a unique pop figure in “The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic” (New York Times Magazine). The collection concludes with Susan Choi’s striking short story “The Whale Mother” (Harper’s Magazine).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231198035
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	01/11/2022
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	668,789
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Sid Holt is executive director of the American Society of Magazine Editors and a former editor at Rolling Stone and Adweek magazines.

Clara Jeffery is editor in chief of Mother Jones.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Clara Jeffery, editor in chief, Mother Jones
Acknowledgments, by Sid Holt, chief executive, American Society of Magazine Editors
The Plague Year, by Lawrence Wright
The Black American Amputation Epidemic, by Lizzie Presser
The Disappeared, by Aura Bogado
Global Inequality and the Corona Shock, by Adam Tooze
The Limits of Telecommuting, by Margaret O’Mara
Rebuilding Solidarity in a Broken World, by Eric Klinenberg
The Election That Could Break America, by Barton Gellman
The Collaborators, by Anne Applebaum
Editor’s Letter, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Witness and Respair, by Jesmyn Ward
The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd, by Aymann Ismail
Whose Streets?, by Samantha Michaels
The Trayvon Generation, by Elizabeth Alexander
Excerpts From “Marie Claire’s Guide to Protecting Yourself Online”, by Edited by Megan DiTrolio
Graham Court: The Gilded Age Rental, by Matthew Sedacca
One Fifth: The Downtown Co-op of All Downtown Co-ops, by Matthew Sedacca
Ladies of the Good Dead and On Immolation and On Doulas, by Aisha Sabatini Sloan
The Patriot Slave, by Farah Peterson
The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic, by Sam Anderson
Michael Jordan: A History of Flight, by Wright Thompson
Twelve Minutes and a Life, by Mitchell S. Jackson
The Whale Mother, by Susan Choi
Permissions
List of Contributors