The Best American Magazine Writing 2007

The Best American Magazine Writing 2007

<P>This year's selection includes William Langewiesche's probing investigation in <i>Vanity Fair</i> of the slaughter of twenty-four Iraqis in Haditha; C. J. Chivers's chilling account in <i>Esquire</i> of the 2004 hostage crisis in Beslan, which killed 331 people, 186 of them children; Susan Casey's revelation in <i>Best Life</i> of a virtually unknown, Texas-sized garbage dump resting at the bottom of the Pacific ocean; and Andrew Corsello's harrowing portrait in <i>GQ</i> of Robert Mugabe's mad rule and two men-a white farmer and a fiery black priest-who strive for forgiveness instead of hate. </P><P>The collection also includes Vanessa Grigoriadis's hilarious portrait of fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld in <i>New York Magazine</i>; Christopher Hitchens's profile of survivors of Agent Orange in <i>Vanity Fair</i>; Sandra Tsing Loh's coverage of the stay-at-home-mommy debate in the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>; Paul Theroux's thoughts on the dangers of anthropomorphism and our misconceptions about birds in the <i>Smithsonian</i>; Janet Reitman's unraveling of the mysteries of Scientology in <i>Rolling Stone</i>; and the work of nine other exceptional writers.</P>