The best American magazine writing, 2007 / compiled by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Karl Lagerfeld, boy prince of fashion / Vanessa Grigoriadis -- Rules of engagement / William Langewiesche -- Our oceans are turning into plastic-- are we? / Susan Casey -- The school / C.J. Chivers -- He knew he was right / Ian Parker -- Murdering the impossible / Caroline Alexander -- The other side of hate / Andrew Corsello -- Blinded by science: when first we clicked / Bruno Maddox -- Prairie fire / Eric Konigsberg -- Russell and Mary / Michael Donohue -- Inside Scientology / Janet Reitman -- The loved ones / Tom Junod -- Living with geese / Paul Theroux -- Rhymes with rich / Sandra Tsing Loh -- The Vietnam syndrome / Christopher Hitchens -- The tracks of my tears / Stuart Klawans -- The storm of style / Alex Ross -- The strange career of Doctor Raju Gopalarajan / Rajesh Parameswaran.

and Andrew Corsello's harrowing portrait in GQ of Robert Mugabe's mad rule and two men-a white farmer and a fiery black priest-who strive for forgiveness instead of hate. The collection also includes Vanessa Grigoriadis's hilarious portrait of fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld in New York Magazine

and the work of nine other exceptional writers.

C. J. Chivers's chilling account in Esquire of the 2004 hostage crisis in Beslan, which killed 331 people, 186 of them children

Christopher Hitchens's profile of survivors of Agent Orange in Vanity Fair

Janet Reitman's unraveling of the mysteries of Scientology in Rolling Stone

Paul Theroux's thoughts on the dangers of anthropomorphism and our misconceptions about birds in the Smithsonian

Sandra Tsing Loh's coverage of the stay-at-home-mommy debate in the Atlantic Monthly

Susan Casey's revelation in Best Life of a virtually unknown, Texas-sized garbage dump resting at the bottom of the Pacific ocean

This year's selection includes William Langewiesche's probing investigation in Vanity Fair of the slaughter of twenty-four Iraqis in Haditha