This collection offers a sampling of the winners of the 2005 National Magazine awards as well as a sense of the place that magazine writing occupies in modern American journalism. The 17 pieces offered in this anthology include investigative reporting, critical essays, and one piece of fiction, and come from magazines as varied as Esquire, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and Atlantic Monthly. The collection includes Seymour Hersh on the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, David Quammen on Darwin's theory of evolution, Andrew Corsello on wrongfully convicted lifers freed by exonerating DNA evidence, Ian Parker on the gift of organ donation, and James McManus on stem cell research. What they all have in common is dynamism, passionate expression, and a depth of coverage from firsthand reporting. Readers will appreciate this collection from well-known and rising talents among American journalists.