Chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the stories in this anthology include National Magazine Award–winning works of public interest, reporting, feature writing, and fiction. This year's selections include Pamela Colloff ( ) on the agonizing, decades-long struggle by a convicted murderer to prove his innocence; Dexter Filkins ( ) on the emotional effort by an Iraq War veteran to make amends for the role he played in the deaths of innocent Iraqis; Chris Jones ( ) on Robert A. Caro's epic, ongoing investigation into the life and work of Lyndon Johnson; Charles C. Mann ( ) on the odds of human beings' survival as a species; and Roger Angell ( ) on aging, dying, and loss. The former infantryman Brian Mockenhaupt (Byliner) describes modern combat in Afghanistan and its ability both to forge and challenge friendships; Ta-Nehisi Coates ( ) reflects on the complex racial terrain traversed by Barack Obama; Frank Rich ( ) assesses Mitt Romney's ambiguous candidacy; and Dahlia Lithwick ( ) looks at the current and future implications of an eventful year in Supreme Court history. The volume also includes an interview on the art of screenwriting with Terry Southern from w and an award-winning short story by Stephen King published in magazine.