The Best American Magazine Writing 2016

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This year's Best American Magazine Writing features outstanding writing on contentious issues including incarceration, policing, sexual assault, labor, technology, and environmental catastrophe. Selections include Paul Ford's ambitious "What Is Code?" , an innovative explanation of how programming works, and "The Really Big One," by Kathryn Schulz , which exposes just how unprepared the Pacific Northwest is for a major earthquake. Joining them are Meaghan Winter's exposé of crisis pregnancy centers and a chilling story of police prejudice that allowed a serial rapist to run free . Also included is Shane Smith's interview with Barack Obama about mass incarceration .

Other selections demonstrate a range of long-form styles and topics across print and digital publications. The imprisoned hacker and activist Barrett Brown pens hilarious dispatches from behind bars, including a scathing review of Jonathan Franzen's fiction . "The New American Slavery" documents the pervasive exploitation of guest workers, and Luke Mogelson explores the purgatorial fate of an undocumented man sent back to Honduras . Joshua Hammer harrowingly portrays Sierra Leone's worst Ebola ward as even the staff succumb to the disease . And in "The Friend," Matthew Teague's wife is afflicted with cancer, his friend moves in, and the result is a devastating narrative of relationships and death . The collection concludes with Jenny Zhang's "How It Feels," an unconventional meditation on the intersection of teenage cruelty and art .