Longreads Best of 2017: Essays

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in essays.

这里是论文中最好的。

Nicole ChungEditor in chief of Catapult magazine, author of the forthcoming memoir All You Can Ever Know.

妮可·钟（Nicole Chung）是《弹射器》杂志的主编，即将出版的回忆录《你所能知道的一切》的作者。

## Going It Alone (Rahawa Haile, Outside Magazine)

## 独自行动（Rahawa Haile，Outside 杂志）

One of my favorite personal essays published this year was Rahawa Haile’s stunning “Going It Alone,” for Outside.

今年我最喜欢的个人文章之一是拉哈瓦·海尔（Rahawa Haile）为《户外》（Outside）撰写的令人惊叹的《单干》（Going It Alone）。

She uses a personal story, her own journey on Appalachian Trail, to try and answer a larger question: Just who is the outdoors for?

她用一个个人故事，她自己在阿巴拉契亚小道上的旅程，试图回答一个更大的问题：户外活动到底适合谁？

To answer this, Haile doesn’t just rely on her own experiences on the trail, she also does a ton of research, bringing in past interviews and stories, and interweaving anecdotes from other through-hikers she meets along the way.

为了回答这个问题，海尔不仅依靠自己的徒步经历，还进行了大量研究，引入了过去的采访和故事，并交织了她沿途遇到的其他徒步旅行者的轶事。

I really appreciated how, with all these other voices in play, we get a clearer vision of Rahawa and her journey, too.

我真的很感激，在所有这些其他声音的参与下，我们也能更清晰地了解拉哈瓦和她的旅程。

At the conclusion of this piece, which is so gorgeously written and urgent and honest and full of life, Rahawa closes with the perfect ode to those she met on her way: “It is no understatement to say that the friends I made, and the experiences I had with strangers who, at times, literally gave me the shirt off their back, saved my life.

在这篇写得如此华丽、紧迫、诚实和充满生机的文章的结尾处，拉哈瓦以对她在路上遇到的人的完美颂歌结束了：“毫不轻描淡写地说，我结交的朋友，以及我与陌生人的经历，他们有时真的让我脱掉了他们的背上的衬衫，拯救了我的生命。

I owe a great debt to the through-hiking community that welcomed me with open arms, that showed me what I could be and helped me when I faltered.

我非常感谢徒步旅行社区，他们张开双臂欢迎我，向我展示了我的能力，并在我步履蹒跚时帮助了我。

There is no impossible, they taught me: only good ideas of extraordinary magnitude.”

他们告诉我，没有什么不可能：只有非凡的好想法。”

Porochista KhakpourAuthor of the forthcoming memoir Sick, and the novels The Last Illusion and Sons & Other Flammable Objects.

波罗奇斯塔·哈克普尔 (Porochista Khakpour) 是即将出版的回忆录《病》和小说《最后的幻觉》和《儿子与其他易燃物》的作者。

## Obama’s Parting Gift: Not to Fear White Racism (Carvell Wallace, The New Yorker)

## 奥巴马的临别礼物：不要害怕白人种族主义（卡维尔·华莱士，《纽约客》）

I tiptoed into 2017 filled with dread and despair thanks to the political atmosphere, but it just so happened this New Yorker essay came out early in the year, and it was one I returned to many times.

政治气氛让我踮着脚尖踏入了充满恐惧和绝望的2017年，而恰巧《纽约客》这篇文章在年初就发表了，我也多次翻阅过它。

It reminded me of what power means and how it can come again, even under the most menacing racist climates in history.

它让我想起权力意味着什么，以及权力如何能够再次到来，即使是在历史上最险恶的种族主义气候下。

It moved me so much that I taught it and then read everything else the writer had written; a couple months later I felt compelled to message him to tell him I greatly appreciated his work.

它让我非常感动，所以我教了它，然后阅读了作者写的所有其他内容；几个月后，我觉得有必要给他发消息，告诉他我非常欣赏他的工作。

It turned out he knew and loved my work too, and flash forward some months, he became my boyfriend.

事实证明，他也了解并热爱我的工作，几个月后，他成了我的男朋友。

It might be awkward to nominate a loved one, but Wallace’s work is indispensable to me — he’s one of our most essential essayists.

提名一位亲人可能会很尴尬，但华莱士的作品对我来说是不可或缺的——他是我们最重要的散文家之一。

(He managed to turn his GQ cover story on Mahershala Ali into a beautiful essay too, without being indulgent or steering off course.) I know I’m lucky to have him; I know we all are lucky to have him.

（他也成功地将马赫沙拉·阿里的《GQ》封面故事变成了一篇漂亮的文章，没有放纵或偏离正轨。）我知道有他是我的幸运；我知道我很幸运。我知道我们都很幸运能拥有他。

Jen DollAuthor of the memoir Save the Date and the upcoming novel Unclaimed Baggage

Jen Doll是回忆录《Save the Date》和即将出版的小说《无人认领的行李》的作者

## Wrongful Birth (Jen Gann, New York Magazine)

## 错误出生（Jen Gann，纽约杂志）

My favorite longread this year was one that came in toward the end of the year, but it’s a stunner.

我今年最喜欢的长读物是在年底出版的，但它令人震惊。

Jen Gann’s New York Magazine cover story weaves reporting and personal essay together in a form that is pure, moving, informative, and true.

Jen Gann 的《纽约杂志》封面故事以纯粹、感人、信息丰富且真实的形式将报道和个人文章编织在一起。

Gann’s son has cystic fibrosis.

江恩的儿子患有囊性纤维化。

The disease should have been caught by her doctors before she gave birth — and in fact, it was — but the information was never passed on to her.

这种疾病本应在她分娩前就被她的医生发现——事实上也确实如此——但这些信息从未传递给她。

Instead, a child she would have aborted is deeply beloved no less for his illness.

相反，她本想流产的孩子却因为他的病而深受爱戴。

Because of the disease, she must fight for him daily, which along with caring for his needs also means filing a “wrongful birth” lawsuit to help pay exorbitant medical expenses.

由于患病，她必须每天为他而战，除了照顾他的需要外，还意味着要提起“非正常出生”诉讼，以帮助支付高昂的医疗费用。

So many personal essays are called brave, but this one truly is, in the way that Gann reveals the complicated truth of her emotions to a society that is not often kind to women who don’t fit the category of “perfect, beatific motherhood,” whatever that is, and is crueler still to those who reject that notion as they attempt to do the best they can for their child.

很多个人文章都被称为勇敢，但这篇文章确实如此，因为江恩向一个社会揭示了她情感的复杂真相，这个社会对那些不符合“完美、幸福的母性”类别的女性并不友善，无论是什么，而对那些拒绝这一概念、试图为孩子尽力而为的人则更加残酷。

Gann’s reconciling of her emotions with her reality isn’t an easy task; it’s something she’ll have to do for the rest of her life, and her child’s.

江恩调和自己的情绪与现实并不是一件容易的事。这是她和她孩子的余生必须做的事情。

This powerful essay provides a glimpse into something that every human, whether they have children or not, should try to understand.

这篇有力的文章让我们一睹每个人，无论是否有孩子，都应该尝试理解的东西。

Lilly DancygerDeputy editor, Narratively

Lilly Dancyger《Narratively》副编辑

## Why We Must Believe Women: My Family’s Legacy of Violence and Murder (Chelsea Bieker, Catapult)

## 为什么我们必须相信女性：我家族的暴力和谋杀遗产（Chelsea Bieker、Catapult）

This piece by Chelsea Bieker takes all of the swirling pain and fear and rage of the #MeToo moment and brings it back down to earth into one family’s heartbreaking story, which was marred, over and over, by male violence, and by society’s refusal to believe it.

切尔西·比克 (Chelsea Bieker) 的这篇作品将#MeToo 时刻的所有漩涡般的痛苦、恐惧和愤怒带回到现实，讲述一个家庭令人心碎的故事，这个故事一次又一次地受到男性暴力和社会拒绝相信的损害。

Kiese LaymonAuthor of the novel Long Division and the forthcoming memoir Heavy.

基塞·雷蒙 (Kisee Laymon) 是小说《长除法》和即将出版的回忆录《重型》的作者。

## Border Wars (Zandria F.

## 边境战争 (Zandria F.

Robinson, Oxford American)

罗宾逊，牛津美国人）

It’s strange when one of the best essayists in the world keeps getting, not just better, but more ambitious, clearer, productively ambiguous, and loving.

当世界上最好的散文家之一不断变得不仅更好，而且更加雄心勃勃、更加清晰、富有成效的模糊性和爱心时，这很奇怪。

That’s exactly what Robinson pulls off in this essay.

这正是罗宾逊在这篇文章中所要表达的内容。

She doesn’t just prove that the deep black south is the center of many of our musical worlds, she accepts it.

她不仅证明了深邃的南方黑人是我们许多音乐世界的中心，她还接受了这一点。

That acceptance becomes a cause for celebration, a painful reckoning, and a real meditation on what literary and literal gumption can create and sustain in essayistic forms.

这种接受成为值得庆祝的理由，一种痛苦的清算，以及对文学和文字进取心可以在散文形式中创造和维持的真正思考。

Minda HoneyWriter, working on a dating memoir, An Anthology of Assholes.

Minda Honey作家，正在写一本约会回忆录《混蛋选集》。

## A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, GQ)

## 最美国的恐怖分子：迪伦·鲁夫的制作（Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah，GQ）

During the summer of 2015, in an act of white supremacist terror, Dylann Roof murdered nine black people at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston while their heads were bowed in prayer.

2015 年夏天，迪伦·鲁夫 (Dylann Roof) 在查尔斯顿的伊曼纽尔圣母教堂 (Mother Emanuel AME Church) 发起了一场白人至上主义恐怖行动，杀害了 9 名低头祈祷的黑人。

GQ describes Ghansah’s many months spent in Charleston profiling Roof as a search for answers, but that’s not quite accurate.

《GQ》将 Ghansah 在查尔斯顿花费数月时间对 Roof 进行剖析描述为寻找答案，但这并不十分准确。

Her piece is an autopsy of the American lie that this has ever been the land of the free.

她的作品是对美国谎言的剖析，即美国曾经是自由之地。

It is the cold truth about racism and its victims written with a warm hand.

这是关于种族主义及其受害者的冷酷事实，是用温暖的手写成的。

Her piece is the piece writers with less range attempted to write about a neighborhood Nazi.

她的作品是范围较小的作家试图写的关于邻里纳粹的作品。

I look forward to her first book, The Explainers & the Explorers, out next year.

我期待她的第一本书《解释者与探索者》明年出版。

Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads

Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑

## A Pet Tortoise Who Will Outlive Us All (Hanya Yanagihara, The New York Times Magazine)

## 一只比我们都活得更久的宠物乌龟（Hanya Yanagihara，纽约时报杂志）

The essay that stayed with me throughout the year was a profile of a sulcata tortoise named Fred who spends his days wandering the backyard of Yanagihara’s parents’ house in Honolulu.

这篇文章让我印象深刻一整年，内容是一只名叫弗雷德的苏卡达陆龟的简介，它整天在檀香山柳原父母家的后院闲逛。

Whatever we demand from our pets — love, affection, the mere acknowledgment of our presence — is lost on Fred.

无论我们向宠物提出什么要求——爱、感情、仅仅承认我们的存在——弗雷德都一无所获。

But tortoises are present in a way few animals can be.

但乌龟的存在方式却是其他动物所无法比拟的。

“To be in the company of a tortoise is to be reminded — instantly, inarticulably — of the oldness of the world and the newness of us.” writes Yanagihara “To be around them is to be reminded, incessantly, of our own vulnerability — and our own imminent deaths.” In a year where everything in the world seemed to be moving so quickly, Fred reminded me of what lasts — and what will outlast — the petty troubles of the day.

“与乌龟为伴，会立刻、难以言喻地提醒我们，世界是古老的，而我们是新鲜的。”柳原写道：“在他们身边，我们就会不断地想起我们自己的脆弱——以及我们自己即将到来的死亡。”在这一年里，世界上的一切似乎都变化得如此之快，弗雷德让我想起了什么是持久的——以及什么将比当今的小麻烦更持久。

Sari BottonEssays editor, Longreads

Sari Botton 长篇读物散文编辑

## My Father Spent 30 Years in Prison.

## 我的父亲在监狱里度过了 30 年。

Now He’s Out (Ashley C.

现在他出局了（Ashley C.

Ford, Refinery29)

福特、炼油厂29)

Ashley C.

阿什利·C.

Ford writes about the joys and frustrations of being reunited with her father, who spent most of her life in prison.

福特写下了与父亲团聚的喜悦和挫折，她的父亲在监狱里度过了她一生的大部分时间。

She does so with an astonishing blend of candor and compassion that makes it so you can’t help but feel for both of them.

她的表现令人惊讶地融合了坦诚和同情心，让你情不自禁地同情他们俩。

Ford’s father has missed so much of his daughter’s life, but that’s not all he has to catch up on.

福特的父亲非常怀念女儿的生活，但这并不是他要弥补的全部。

Having been incarcerated since the late 1980s, he is way behind the times, technologically speaking.

自 20 世纪 80 年代末以来，他一直被监禁，从技术上来说，他远远落后于时代。

He’s new to the whole world of cell phones, not to mention texting.

他对整个手机世界都是新手，更不用说发短信了。

(If you think helping your aging parents with their technology is frustrating, imagine if they’d never owned even a computer.) While her father is trying to learn new ways to connect with his daughter, Ford is also trying to learn how to set healthy boundaries with him, which makes for complications, and tremendous poignancy.

（如果你认为用技术帮助年迈的父母令人沮丧，想象一下他们甚至从未拥有过一台电脑。）当她的父亲试图学习与女儿联系的新方法时，福特也在努力学习如何与他设定健康的界限，这导致了复杂性和巨大的辛酸。

## What Do We Do With The Art of Monstrous Men?

## 我们如何处理怪物的艺术？

(Claire Dederer, The Paris Review)

（克莱尔·戴德勒，《巴黎评论》）

In this nuanced, challenging essay, Claire Dederer crystallizes a particular dilemma that has arisen from this #MeToo moment: Can we continue to enjoy or appreciate the art of men who have turned out to be sexual predators or harassers or discriminators?

在这篇细致入微、富有挑战性的文章中，克莱尔·德德勒具体化了 #MeToo 时刻出现的一个特殊困境：我们能否继续欣赏或欣赏那些已被证明是性掠夺者、骚扰者或歧视者的男人的艺术？

It’s a question she ponders both morally, and aesthetically.

这是她在道德和美学上思考的问题。

I relate.

我有感触。

I will never forgive Woody Allen for, as Ronan Farrow calls it, becoming his brother-in-law, nor for the sexual abuse Dylan Farrow has accused him of.

我永远不会原谅伍迪·艾伦（罗南·法罗所说的那样）成为他的妹夫，也不会原谅迪伦·法罗指控他的性虐待行为。

And I will also never forgive Woody Allen for ruining Woody Allen for me.

我也永远不会原谅伍迪·艾伦为我毁了伍迪·艾伦。

Dederer doesn’t stop there.

戴德勒并没有就此止步。

She also interrogates the harsh boundaries artists and writers must erect, and the others they must trespass, in order to do the work they do — and how women artists are afforded less understanding and forgiveness for becoming such “art monsters.” (A week or so after this was published, Lorin Stein, editor in chief of The Paris Review, resigned amid an investigation into his inappropriate sexual behavior there.)

她还质疑艺术家和作家为了完成他们所做的工作必须建立的严酷界限，以及他们必须侵犯的其他界限——以及女性艺术家如何成为这样的“艺术怪物”而得不到更少的理解和宽恕。 （这篇文章发表一周左右后，《巴黎评论》主编洛林·斯坦在对其不当性行为的调查中辞职。）