The best American magazine writing 2012 / compiled by the American Society of Magazine Editors ; introduction by Terry McDonell.

Joplin! / Luke Dittrich -- The Apostate / Lawrence Wright -- Excerpts from The Encyclopedia of 9/11 -- Wall Street isn't winning-it's cheating and Mike Bloomberg's Marie Antoinette moment and How I stopped worrying and learned to love the OWS protests / Matt Taibbi -- Too much information / John Jeremiah Sullivan -- Our man in Kandahar / Matthieu Aikins -- Arms and the dudes / Guy Lawson -- The invisible army / Sarah Stillman -- The secret that kills four women a day / Liz Brody -- The signature wound / Bob Drury -- Fractured / Susan Ince -- Dewayne Dedmon's leap of faith / Chris Ballard -- Paper tigers / Wesley Yang -- Game of her life / Tim Crothers -- He is anonymous / Tim Rogers -- Looking for a Model and The right to write and Content management / William Zinsser -- Duck tape and America's next top Weiner and The end of Kardaschadenfreude / Joel Stein -- The Hox River window / Karen Russell -- When the king saved God and From Abbottabad to worse and Unspoken truths / Christopher Hitchens.

Chosen from the nominees and winners of the 2012 National Magazine Awards, this year's anthology covers a range of developments in culture, commerce, society, and politics, from the passing of Steve Jobs to the controversy over breast cancer research funding.