COLUMNS AND ESSAYS
Honors interpretative journalism, including news analysis, political and social commentary and essays on the personal experience of the writer

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WINNER
New York
David Haskell, Editor in Chief
Edited by Joy Shan
“The Last Thing My Mother Wanted,” by Evelyn Jouvenet, May 6-19

Ostensibly about the writer’s “quite healthy” mother’s shocking decision to die by assisted suicide, “The Last Thing My Mother Wanted” captivated the National Magazine Award judges. The anonymous author’s clear prose is remarkable, as is her rare, unsparing meditation on a relationship with a parent with an undiagnosed personality disorder. This is a thrillingly structured example of the personal essay, one that pushes the reader to new considerations of what it means to love.

FINALISTS

The American Scholar
Sudip Bose, Editor
Edited by Bruce Falconer
“Shooting a Dog,” by Hugh Martin, Winter

Guardian US
Betsy Reed, Editor
Edited by Noa Yachot
“How Israel Has Made Trauma a Weapon of War,” by Naomi Klein, October 5

Harper's Magazine
Christopher Carroll, Editor
Edited by Matthew Sherrill
“After the Deluge,” by Gary Greenberg, December

The New York Times Magazine
Jake Silverstein, Editor in Chief
Edited by Bill Wasik
“The Kidnapping I Can't Escape,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, July 14

T: The New York Times Style Magazine
Hanya Yanagihara, Editor in Chief
Edited by Kurt Soller
Three articles by Mark Harris: “Missing the Gay Best Friend,” March 11, “Gay Men Have Long Been Obsessed With Their Muscles. Now Everyone Is,” August 9, and “Who Gets to Be a Daddy?,” October 7, at nytimes.com/t-magazine

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
James Shaheen, Editor in Chief
“Abortion and the First Precept,” by Katy Butler, Winter