The Best American Magazine Writing 2020

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

Introduction, by Jonathan Dorn, president, American Society of Magazine Editors
Acknowledgments, by Sid Holt, chief executive, American Society of Magazine Editors
“False Witness,” by Pamela Colloff (New York Times Magazine in partnership with ProPublica): Winner—Reporting
“We’ve Normalized Prison,” by Piper Kerman (Washington Post Magazine): Winner—Single-Topic Issue
“Can We Build a Better Women’s Prison?,” by Keri Blakinger (Washington Post Magazine): Winner—Single-Topic Issue
“Epidemic of Fear,” by Erika Fry (Fortune): Finalist— Reporting
“Las Marthas,” by Jordan Kisner (The Believer): Finalist—Feature Writing
“The Schoolteacher and the Genocide,” by Sarah A. Topol (New York Times Magazine): Winner—Feature Writing
“Unlike Any Other,” by Nick Paumgarten (New Yorker): Finalist—Feature Writing
“Jerry’s Dirt,” by Jacob Baynham (Georgia Review): Winner—Profile Writing
“Elizabeth Warren’s Classroom Strategy,” by Rebecca Traister (New York): Finalist—Profile Writing
“Tactile Art,” by John Lee Clark (Poetry): Winner—Essays and Criticism
“India: Intimations of an Ending,” by Arundhati Roy (The Nation in partnership with Type Media Center): Finalist—Essays and Criticism
“When Disability Is a Toxic Legacy and The Ugly Beautiful and Other Failings of Disability Representation and What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Mental Health and Medication,” by s.e. smith (Catapult): Winner—Columns and Commentary
“Kanye West’s Sunday Service Is Full of Longing and Self-Promotion and Love, Death, and Begging for Celebrities to Kill You and E. Jean Carroll’s Accusation Against Donald Trump, and the Raising, and Lowering, of the Bar,” by Jia Tolentino (New Yorker): Finalist—Columns and Commentary
“Nothing Sacred and An Assault on the Tongue and Interlopers,” by Ligaya Mishan (T: The New York Times Style Magazine): Finalist—Columns and Commentary
“Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True.,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones (New York Times Magazine, “The 1619 Project”): Winner—Public Interest
“Fight the Ship,” by T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose, and Robert Faturechi (ProPublica): Finalist—Public Interest
“Under the Ackee Tree,” by Jonathan Escoffery (Paris Review): Winner—ASME Award for Fiction
Permissions
List of Contributors