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Best New Yorker Articles of 2014

Explore 47 featured picks from The New Yorker's 2014 issues.

47 picks · 47 issues · Top author: Jill Lepore (3)

Most featured section: A Reporter at Large

Featured Picks

Tamales on the Delta
Calvin Trillin · U.S. Journal · January 6

A culinary festival in a world capital.

Written Off
Rebecca Mead · Profiles · January 13

Rebecca Mead profiles the best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner, who takes the literary media to task for being biased against female writers and readers.

Death Dust
Dana Goodyear · A Reporter at Large · January 20

The valley-fever menace.

Going the Distance
David Remnick · Annals of the Presidency · January 27

David Remnick talks to the President about what he hopes to accomplish in his second term and whether he will satisfy the standard he set for himself.

Outside the Box
Ken Auletta · Annals of Communications · February 3

Ken Auletta on Netflix, which is changing the business of television and the nature of television shows.

A Valuable Reputation
Rachel Aviv · Annals of Science · February 10

After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him.

This Old Man
Roger Angell · Onward and Outward · February 17

Roger Angell writes about life after ninety: “I know how lucky I am, and secretly tap wood, greet the day, and grab a sneaky pleasure from my survival at long odds.”

Patriot Games
David Remnick · Letter from Sochi · March 3

Vladimir Putin lives his Olympic dream.

The Comandante’s Canal
Jon Lee Anderson · A Reporter at Large · March 10

Will a grand national project enrich Nicaragua, or only its leader?

The Reckoning
Andrew Solomon · Annals of Psychology · March 17

Andrew Solomon on Peter Lanza, the father of Adam Lanza, who killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Connecticut.

Under the Sign of the Moon
Tessa Hadley · Fiction · March 24

As soon as she had settled into her seat at Euston, the man across the table had shown signs of wanting to talk. He had asked her how far she was going and…

My Friend, Stalin’s Daughter
Nicholas Thompson · Personal History · March 31

The complicated life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.

Elicitation
John McPhee · The Writing Life · April 7

Who is there to help you but the person who is answering your questions?

This Is My Jail
Jeffrey Toobin · Letter from Baltimore · April 14

Where gang members and their female guards set the rules.

The Anchor
Mattathias Schwartz · Letter from Lampedusa · April 21

The Africans who risk all to reach Europe look to an exiled priest as their savior.

The Poet’s Hand
Adam Gopnik · Life and Letters · April 28

Why do we still search for relics of the Bard?

The Hunt for El Chapo
Patrick Radden Keefe · A Reporter at Large · May 5

Patrick Radden Keefe on the capture of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who is known as El Chapo, the notorious head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

The End of Food
Lizzie Widdicombe · Annals of Gastronomy · May 12

Has a tech entrepreneur come up with a product to replace our meals?

Schooled
Dale Russakoff · A Reporter at Large · May 19

Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg had a plan to reform Newark’s schools. They got an education.

Sketchbook Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman · Sketchbook · May 26

SKETCHBOOK about the Frieze Art Fair, showing a woman looking at an art installation. “At an art fair you can’t go wrong with a tall, skinny red ladder…

Notes of Dissent
Alex Ross · Letter from Budapest · June 2

In Hungary, Iván Fischer is shaking up music and politics.

Here’s the Story
David Gilbert · Fiction · June 9

David Gilbert’s short story about chance meetings, attraction, parenthood, plane rides, and fate.

Get Out of Jail, Inc.
Sarah Stillman · A Reporter at Large · June 23

Sarah Stillman on the private-probation industry, which offers alternatives to incarceration by charging small-time offenders ever-mounting fees.

Moment To Moment
Nathan Heller · Profiles · June 30

Nathan Heller profiles Richard Linklater, the filmmaker behind “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise,” “Boyhood,” and other movies.

California Screaming
Nathan Heller · Letter from San Francisco · July 7

Nathan Heller on the tech industry's gentrification of California's Bay Area and why philanthropy may not be enough to address the resulting real-estate crisis and lack of jobs.

Wagner in the Desert
Greg Jackson · Fiction · July 21

Eli and Marta were trying to have a baby. But before they had their baby, they had decided to do every last thing that a baby precludes, every last …

Mean Girl
Kelefa Sanneh · Profiles · July 28

Kelefa Sanneh on the U.F.C. fighter Ronda Rousey.

Crime Fiction
Nicholas Schmidle · A Reporter at Large · August 4

Nicholas Schmidle on the case of Tyrone Hood, who is in prison for the 1993 murder of Marshall Morgan and has always maintained his innocence. Did the Chicago police coerce witnesses into pinpointing the wrong man for homicide—allowing a serial killer to commit more murders?

Meritorious
Mark Singer · The Sporting Life · August 11

Mark Singer on Roger Angell, who travelled to the National Baseball Hall of Fame to receive the J. G. Taylor Spink Award “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”

The Crooked and the Dead
Jill Lepore · American Chronicles · August 25

Jill Lepore writes about Governor Andrew Cuomo, Zephyr Teachout, the history of political corruption, and what the Constitution has to say on the matter.

The Troll Slayer
Rebecca Mead · Profiles · September 1

Rebecca Mead profiles the Cambridge classicist Mary Beard, whose fight against misogyny has made her a feminist heroine.

The Masked Avengers
David Kushner · A Reporter at Large · September 8

Anonymous has targeted Middle Eastern dictators, the Church of Scientology, PayPal, and the Ferguson police. David Kushner reports.

Dignity
William Finnegan · A Reporter at Large · September 15

William Finnegan on the fast-food workers’ movement and the fight, with the help of the S.E.I.U., for a livable minimum wage and a union.

The Last Amazon
Jill Lepore · Annals of Entertainment · September 22

Jill Lepore on Wonder Woman’s real origin story: she was a utopian feminist creation, inspired by Margaret Sanger and the ideals of free love.

Pictures from an Institution
Alice Gregory · Profiles · September 29

Alice Gregory on Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, and his unusual approach to fund-raising and endowments.

Before the Law
Jennifer Gonnerman · Our Local Correspondents · October 6

Jennifer Gonnerman on Kalief Browder, a Bronx teen-ager who was accused of stealing a backpack. He spent more than a thousand days awaiting trial.

The Empire of Edge
Patrick Radden Keefe · A Reporter at Large · October 13

In 2012, prosecutors accused S.A.C.’s Mathew Martoma of “engineering the most lucrative insider-trading scheme in history.” Patrick Radden Keefe reports.

The Holder of Secrets
George Packer · Profiles · October 20

George Packer profiles the filmmaker, whose new documentary, “Citizenfour,” tells the inside story of the N.S.A. whistle-blower.

The Ebola Wars
Richard Preston · A Reporter at Large · October 27

As the epidemic widens, the virus is mutating. Geneticists are racing to keep up. Richard Preston reports.

Against the Grain
Michael Specter · A Reporter at Large · November 3

Millions of people have sworn off wheat, but there’s little science to support them. Michael Specter investigates.

The Outcast
Rachel Aviv · A Reporter at Large · November 10

Rachel Aviv on a Hasidic sex-abuse scandal. After a child-molestation case, leaders of the community turned against the whistleblower, Sam Kellner.

Double Jeopardy
Paige Williams · A Reporter at Large · November 17

Shonelle Jackson may become the first American to be executed despite a jury’s unanimous vote for life. Paige Williams reports from Alabama.

The Unblinking Stare
Steve Coll · A Reporter at Large · November 24

Steve Coll on whether it really serves American interests in Pakistan.

The Great Paper Caper
Jill Lepore · American Chronicles · December 1

Jill Lepore on the theft of Justice Felix Frankfurter’s papers from the Library of Congress and how it changed the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Ride of Their Lives
Burkhard Bilger · A Reporter at Large · December 8

Burkhard Bilger on rodeo kids. Bull riding is the most dangerous organized sport in the world, but the kids at the Camp of Champions can’t wait to compete.

Let It Go
Joan Acocella · A Critic at Large · December 15

Joan Acocella on Scott Herring’s “The Hoarders,” a history of hoarding from Grey Gardens to the DSM-V.

In the Land of the Possible
Evan Osnos · Profiles · December 22

Evan Osnos profiles the American Ambassador to the U.N. How has her human-rights interventionism affected Obama’s decisions?

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