The Best American Magazine Writing 2000 (Best American Magazine Writing) [Paperback]

Clay Felker (Editor), The American Society of Magazine Editors (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2000 | ISBN-10: 158648009X | ISBN-13: 978-1586480097 | Edition: 1st

A discerning collection of great magazine pieces drawn from the nominees for the prestigious National Magazine Awards. . In the world of magazines, no recognition is more highly coveted than an "Ellie," the National Magazine Award presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors to the best of the American magazines. The Awards are the magazine equivalents to the Pulitzer Prizes of the newspaper industry. Each year, hundreds of editors-in-chief, journalism professors, and art directors winnow more than a thousand submissions to about seventy-five nominees in categories such as Reporting, Feature Writing, Profiles, Public Interest, Essays, Reviews and Criticism. Interest in the nominees is keen, and this collection will allow people both in the magazine world and beyond to find in one place, read, and admire the year's best. It is a wonderful, browsable volume of interest to writers and readers who appreciate magazine writing and journalism at its highest level. The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is the professional organization for senior editors of consumer magazines and business publications which are edited, published, and sold in the United States. It sponsors the National Magazine Awards which are administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The first of a planned annual publication, this collection of 15 award-winning magazine pieces that appeared during 1999 is drawn from a field of 1,483 entries in the National Magazine Awards. The judges retained by the American Society of Magazine Editors, based at Columbia University, narrowed the field to 82 finalists in a variety of categories. Long-time magazine editor Felker, now a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, played a major role in choosing the winners included here. Though the book is a welcome beginning, a long-standing annual collection from the American Society of Newspaper Editors (e.g., 1999 Best Newspaper Writing, Bonus Bks., 1999) does it much better. How? By including interviews with the winning writers as well as commentary from first-rate teachers of writing. There are other quibbles with this magazine collection: too many of the pieces are from large, easy-to-obtain magazines (e.g., Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker); too many of the writersD13 of 15Dare men; and the mixing of three fiction with 12 nonfiction pieces gives the collection a strange aura. Quibbles aside, these provocative works ought to appeal to a diverse readership. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DSteve Weinberg, Univ. of Missouri Journalism Sch., Columbia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Clay Felker, as an editor in the early 1960s, encouraged the talents of writers such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Gloria Steinem, and in the process played a central role in the emergence of what came to be known as the New Journalism. He was founding editor of New York Magazine (and thereby, of the modern city/regional magazine) and of New West; edited The Village Voice; influenced the creation or redirection of numerous magazines including U.S. News & World Report, Adweek, and Ms; was editor-in-chief and publisher of Esquire; and was editor-in-chief of Manhattan, Inc. and of M Magazine. He is currently director of the Felker Magazine Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158648009X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586480097
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,330,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for professors who teach nonfiction writing, October 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best American Magazine Writing 2000 (Best American Magazine Writing) (Paperback)

I'm an English professor (Georgetown), and this book is superb for teaching nonfiction writing. Students love the first article, about Nick Nolte as a mad scientist with an unlimited credit card. Subsequent pieces are similarly strong.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Book !!, February 28, 2001

By 

srinivas anumolu (Sunnvale,cs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Magazine Writing 2000 (Best American Magazine Writing) (Paperback)

Book contains brilliant writing published in top magazines like New Yorker, etc. If there is one book you want to read, this should be top of your list. I loved Preston's article on smallpox and short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, etc.