We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
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Decolonizing Knowledge: Stefan Bradley on the Fight for Civil Rights in the Ivy League
In the 1960s, black students at the Ivies organized and protested for fair treatment, their personal safety, to create black studies programs, and to stop their universities from harming local black communities through expansion and urban renewal.
Women Are Really, Really Mad Right Now
Rebecca Traister talks about the revolutionary power of women’s anger.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from David Dobbs, Rachel Aviv, Max Read, Holly George-Warren, and Bianca Bosker.
The Christmas Tape
Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
New York Radical Women and the Limits of Second Wave Feminism
The collective redefined feminism in the 1970s, but it’s blind spots still linger, especially for black women.
Editors Thinking About Editing at the AWP Conference
The only way to work as an editor and a writer is to continue learning from other editors and writers.
Workshopping Workshop: A Reading List
“In workshop, what, if anything, can be written on a syllabus or spoken aloud in class to ensure that each and every participant’s work is read with care?”
‘People Can Become Houses’
In her debut memoir, Sarah Broom builds her “obsession” with her family home — destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina — into a story of how families decide who they are, how they got here, and how they reconstruct themselves over and over again.
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll
From Bob Dylan to David Bowie to The Beatles, the legendary Beat writer’s influence reached beyond literature into music in surprising ways.

