The Best American Magazine Writing 2015

This year's Best American Magazine Writing features articles on politics, culture, sports, sex, race, celebrity, and more. Selections include Ta-Nehisi Coates's intensely debated "The Case For Reparations" (The Atlantic ) and Monica Lewinsky's reflections on the public-humiliation complex and how the rules of the game have (and have not) changed ( Vanity Fair ). Amanda Hess recounts her chilling encounter with Internet sexual harassment ( Pacific Standard ) and John Jeremiah Sullivan shares his investigation into one of American music's greatest mysteries ( New York Times Magazine ).

The anthology also presents Rebecca Traister's acerbic musings on gender politics ( The New Republic ) and Jerry Saltz's fearless art criticism ( New York ). James Verini reconstructs an eccentric love affair against the slow deterioration of Afghanistan in the twentieth century ( The Atavist ); Roger Angell offers affecting yet humorous reflections on life at ninety-three ( The New Yorker ); Tiffany Stanley recounts her poignant experience caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's ( National Journal ); and Jonathan Van Meter takes an entertaining look at fashion's obsession with being a social-media somebody ( Vogue ). Brian Phillips describes his surreal adventures in the world of Japanese ritual and culture ( Grantland ), and Emily Yoffe reveals the unforeseen casualties in the effort to address the college rape crisis ( Slate ). The collection concludes with a work of fiction by Donald Antrim, exploring the geography of loss. ( The New Yorker ).