Longreads Best of 2017: Profile Writing

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 profile writing.

这是最好的个人资料写作。

Seyward DarbyExecutive editor, The Atavist

Seyward Darby《返祖派》执行编辑

## 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）

There was no piece of journalism in 2017 more honest or more raw than Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah’s profile of Dylann Roof for GQ.

2017 年，没有哪一篇新闻报道比 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah 为《GQ》杂志撰写的 Dylann Roof 简介更诚实、更原始。

Its brilliance began with an enviable lede—”Sitting beside the church, drinking from a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, he thought he had to go in and shoot them” — and persisted for the duration of what proved to be an unlikely profile.

它的辉煌始于令人羡慕的引导——“坐在教堂旁边，喝着一瓶斯米诺冰酒，他认为他必须进去射杀他们”——并持续了一段被证明是不太可能的轮廓。

Unlikely, because Kaadzi Ghansah didn’t set out to write it.

不太可能，因为 Kaadzi Ghansah 并没有打算写这本书。

She went to Charleston to cover Roof’s murder trial, planning to report on the families of his victims, but found herself drawn to the young man who sat, angry and silent and unfazed, day after day in the courtroom.

她前往查尔斯顿报道鲁夫谋杀案的审判，计划报道他的受害者家属，但发现自己被这个日复一日坐在法庭上、愤怒、沉默、泰然自若的年轻人所吸引。

She decided to profile a black hole, an absence, because she couldn’t not.

她决定描绘一个黑洞，一种缺席，因为她做不到。

The story is unlikely, too, because of its style.

由于其风格，这个故事也不太可能发生。

Ghansah winds through Roof’s life like a criminal profiler.

甘萨像一名犯罪侧写师一样贯穿了鲁夫的生活。

She collects evidence, data, interviews, and observations, then pieces them together for readers, showing where the connective tissue resides.

她收集证据、数据、访谈和观察，然后将它们拼凑起来供读者查看，显示结缔组织所在的位置。

She is an essential presence in the story, which is no easy feat to pull off, and the result is wholly organic.

她是故事中必不可少的存在，这并不是一件容易的事，而且结果是完全有机的。

This is a story about race, class, anger, bewilderment, and division.

这是一个关于种族、阶级、愤怒、困惑和分裂的故事。

It is also, as the headline “A Most American Terrorist” attests, a story about the current political moment.

正如标题“最具美国恐怖分子”所证明的那样，这也是一个关于当前政治时刻的故事。

You come away from it knowing who Dylann Roof is, who Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah is, and what America is—or, really, what it has always been.

当你离开这里时，你会知道迪伦·鲁夫 (Dylann Roof) 是谁，雷切尔·卡齐·甘萨 (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah) 是谁，以及美国是什么——或者说，它一直是什么。

Helen RosnerWriter and editor whose work has appeared in Guernica, Eater, The New Yorker, Racked, Saveur, New York, Afar, Polygon, and more.

海伦·罗斯纳 (Helen Rosner) 作家兼编辑，其作品曾发表在《格尔尼卡》、《Eater》、《纽约客》、《Racked》、《Saveur》、《纽约》、《Afar》、《Polygon》等杂志上。

## Gerhard Steidl is Making Books an Art Form (Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker)

## Gerhard Steidl 让书籍成为一种艺术形式（Rebecca Mead，《纽约客》）

I goddamn love a profile, and I’ve spent the past twelve months happily drowning in some magnificent specimens.

我非常喜欢侧面图，在过去的十二个月里我一直幸福地沉浸在一些宏伟的标本中。

There were elevations of under-appreciated celebrities (Reggie Ugwu on transgender soul icon Jackie Shane for The New York Times), pull-back-the-curtains on unknowns with staggering influence (Peter Maass on Steve Bannon deputy Julia Hahn for The Intercept), and clever structural riffs on the tired old cover-star puff piece (Anna Peele’s inspired oral history of Jeff Goldblum for GQ).

其中有对未被充分赏识的名人的提升（《纽约时报》的雷吉·乌古（Reggie Ugwu）对变性灵魂偶像杰基·谢恩（Jackie Shane）的评价），对具有惊人影响力的无名人物的影响（《拦截》（The Intercept）的彼得·马斯（Peter Maass）对史蒂夫·班农（Steve Bannon）的副手朱莉娅·哈恩（Julia Hahn）的评价，以及对陈旧的封面明星吹捧作品的巧妙结构性即兴发挥（安娜·皮尔（Anna Peele）为《GQ》杂志启发杰夫·高布伦（Jeff Goldblum）的口述历史）。

But I am, always and forever, a sucker for detailed procedural breakdowns of off-the-radar institutions that wield extraordinary soft power — what my friend Matt Buchanan calls “secret economies” — and so, for me, this was the year of Rebecca Mead’s portrait of meticulous, tyrannical art book printer Gerhard Steidl.

但我永远都热衷于对那些不为人知的机构进行详细的程序崩溃，这些机构拥有非凡的软实力——我的朋友马特·布坎南称之为“秘密经济”——所以，对我来说，今年是丽贝卡·米德描绘的一丝不苟、专横的艺术书籍印刷商格哈德·施泰德尔的一年。

Every paragraph is an eye-boggling joy, revealing facet after unbelievable facet of Steidl’s existence and operation.

每一段都是令人难以置信的喜悦，揭示了施泰德尔的存在和运作的一个又一个令人难以置信的方面。

The printer is a paper-and-binding obsessive who lives next door to his shop — a monastic-luxe compound in Göttingen, Germany that’s largely financed by Karl Lagerfeld — where, pope-like, he summons the world’s most influential artists and photographers to his workshop for days of emotional terrorism in service of books that are, in the words of photographer Edward Burtynsky, “the haute couture of printing.” Depending on how you read it, it’s an artistic fairy tale, a psychological horror movie, or some kind of thrilling fusion of the two.

这位印刷商是一位对纸张和装订痴迷的人，住在他的商店隔壁——德国哥廷根的一座修道院豪华建筑，主要由卡尔·拉格斐 (Karl Lagerfeld) 资助。在那里，他像教皇一样召集世界上最有影响力的艺术家和摄影师到他的工作室，进行数天的情感恐怖主义，为书籍服务，用摄影师爱德华·伯汀斯基 (Edward Burtynsky) 的话来说，这些书籍是“印刷的高级时装”。根据你的阅读方式，它是一部艺术童话、一部心理恐怖电影，或者是两者的某种惊心动魄的融合。

Kevin NguyenSenior editor, GQ.com

Kevin NguyenGQ.com 高级编辑

## Her Eyes Were Watching the Stars (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Elle)

## 她的眼睛看着星星（Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah，Elle）

Celebrity profiles can get shortchanged in these year-end lists, so I have to shout out Elle‘s Missy Elliott profile, written by the superbly confident Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah.

在这些年终名单中，名人简介可能会被忽略，所以我不得不大声说出《Elle》的 Missy Elliott 简介，该简介是由极其自信的 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah 撰写的。

She offers vibrant personal context to provide stakes, some sharp descriptions of Missy’s oeuvre, and great scene work of the photo shoot.

她提供了充满活力的个人背景来提供赌注、对米西作品的一些尖锐描述以及照片拍摄的精彩场景工作。

Access journalism is best when it’s self-aware rather than self-deprecating.

当新闻具有自我意识而不是自嘲时，接触新闻是最好的。

You don’t have to read too much between the lines to know time with Missy was limited, but the moments we get with Missy aren’t fleeting — they feel like a gift.

你不必读太多字里行间就能知道与米西在一起的时间是有限的，但我们与米西在一起的时刻并不是转瞬即逝的——它们感觉就像是一份礼物。

Whitney JoinerFeatures director, Hearst Digital Media

惠特尼·乔纳 (Whitney Joiner) 赫斯特数字媒体 (Hearst Digital Media) 专题总监

## Old Woods and Deep (Noah Gallagher Shannon, Oxford American)

## Old Woods and Deep（诺亚·加拉格尔·香农，牛津美国大学）

The notoriously press-avoidant Cormac McCarthy is usually mapped onto the American West, but his Appalachian childhood deeply informs his earlier works.

出了名的回避媒体的科马克·麦卡锡通常被描绘成美国西部，但他的阿巴拉契亚童年深深影响了他早期的作品。

Shannon explores the Appalachian McCarthy and his connection to Knoxville, Tenessee in a profile that’s as much about a McCarthy-obsessed psychology professor and the cult of McCarthy as it is about the grizzled, mythic, overblown novelist himself.

香农探讨了阿巴拉契亚麦卡锡及其与田纳西州诺克斯维尔的联系，这篇简介既讲述了一位痴迷于麦卡锡的心理学教授和对麦卡锡的崇拜，也讲述了这位头发花白、神话般、夸张的小说家本人。

Taffy Brodesser-AknerFeature writer for The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine

塔菲·布罗德瑟-阿克纳《纽约时报》和《纽约时报杂志》特约撰稿人

## The Princess Myth (Hilary Mantel, The Guardian)

## 公主神话（希拉里·曼特尔，《卫报》）

It’s hard to pick just one great profile, made only slightly easier by the fact that I wasn’t allowed to pick one from my places of employment, which is good because that excluded GQ (where it would be impossible to pick between any of Caity Weaver‘s alone) and The New York Times Magazine (where I am glad I don’t have to choose between Jazmine Hughes’ Elaine Welteroth profile or Matthew Shaer on Sean Hannity).

很难选出一份优秀的个人资料，只是因为我不被允许从我的工作单位中挑选一份，这才稍微容易一些，这很好，因为这排除了《GQ》（在那里不可能单独在凯蒂·韦弗的任何一篇个人资料之间进行选择）和《纽约时报杂志》（我很高兴我不必在 Jazmine Hughes 的 Elaine Welteroth 个人资料或 Matthew Shaer 的 Sean Hannity 的个人资料之间做出选择）。

But I still had to pick between incredible profiles from Emily Nussbaum and Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah (yes, Dylann Roof, but oh my god Missy Elliot) and Jessica Pressler and Jia Tolentino and Alexander Chee and Jada Yuan (x10) and Tom Junod (his story of Muhammad Ali’s funeral felt like a profile to me) and Olivia Nuzzi and Elizabeth Weil and Wright Thompson and the general career barn-storming of Allison P.

但我仍然必须在 Emily Nussbaum 和 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah（是的，Dylann Roof，但是哦，我的上帝 Missy Elliot）、Jessica Pressler、Jia Tolentino、Alexander Chee 和 Jada Yuan（x10）、Tom Junod（他关于穆罕默德·阿里葬礼的故事对我来说就像是一个简介）、Olivia Nuzzi、Elizabeth Weil 和 Wright Thompson 以及一般职业生涯中令人难以置信的简介中做出选择艾莉森·P 的谷仓风暴

Davis (whose Cardi B feature got a lot of attention, yes, but I’m thinking more of her encounter with DJ Khaled’s baby, because how did I never think to profile a baby?)

戴维斯（是的，她的卡迪·B 片受到了很多关注，但我更多地想到了她与 DJ Khaled 的孩子的遭遇，因为我怎么从来没有想过要描写一个孩子呢？）

But here’s the one I never shook: Hilary Mantel on Princess Diana for The Guardian, which reads like a Hilary Mantel novel.

但我从未动摇过：希拉里·曼特尔 (Hilary Mantel) 为《卫报》撰写的关于戴安娜王妃的文章，读起来就像希拉里·曼特尔 (Hilary Mantel) 的小说。

On a sentence by sentence valuation, it is spun from gold:

逐句估值，它是从金子里纺出来的：

When Diana died, a crack appeared in a vial of grief, and released a salt ocean.

当戴安娜去世时，悲伤的小瓶出现了裂缝，释放出盐海。

A nation took to the boats.

一个国家登上了船只。

and

和

A deathbed, once, was a location dense with meaning, a room packed with the invisible presences of angels, devils, ancestors.

临终前的床曾经是一个充满意义的地方，一个充满天使、魔鬼和祖先的无形存在的房间。

But now, as many of us don’t believe in an afterlife, we envisage no final justice, no ultimate meaning, and have no support for our sense of loss when “positivity” falters.

但现在，由于我们中的许多人不相信来世，我们设想没有最终的正义，没有最终的意义，并且当“积极性”动摇时，我们无法支持我们的失落感。

and

和

The princess we invented to fill a vacancy had little to do with any actual person.

我们为了填补空缺而虚构的公主与任何真实的人没有什么关系。

While so many profiles I read are great, most eventually commit the sin of self-consciousness — pulling back from taking their subject seriously, not really committing to loving their subjects even when they so clearly do.

虽然我读过的很多简介都很棒，但大多数人最终都会犯下自我意识的罪过——不再认真对待他们的主题，即使他们如此明确地热爱他们的主题，也没有真正致力于热爱他们的主题。

Perhaps it’s death that allows Mantel such a serious and adoring rendering of Diana.

也许正是死亡让曼特尔能够如此严肃而充满爱意地描绘戴安娜。

I hope not, because I think the living deserve this level of treatment.

我希望不会，因为我认为活着的人应该得到这种水平的待遇。

Whatever it is, I read it with one hand over my mouth for the duration, blindsided in equal parts by jealousy and inspiration.

不管它是什么，我在阅读过程中一直用一只手捂着嘴，嫉妒和灵感都让我措手不及。

Catherine CusickAudience development editor, Longreads

Catherine Cusick Longreads 观众开发编辑

## Dwayne Johnson for President!

## 巨石强森竞选总统！

(Caity Weaver, GQ)

（凯蒂·韦弗，《GQ》）

Caity Weaver’s May cover story on The Rock is the main reason I will miss net neutrality.

凯蒂·韦弗 (Caity Weaver) 在《The Rock》上的五月封面故事是我怀念网络中立性的主要原因。

It’s the one profile I can drunk-read aloud to my mom with abandon, the only one that can make her laugh so hard she forgets to ask me how audiences develop again.

这是我可以在醉酒时放纵地大声朗读给我妈妈的一篇简介，也是唯一一篇能让她笑得很厉害，以至于忘记问我观众是如何再次发展的。

(By getting The Rock to quote tweet us, Mom).

（妈妈，让巨石强森引用我们的推文）。

Weaver’s the only author who appears twice in all of Our No. 1 Story Picks this year, and once all the political math is done, I’m confident that profiling The Rock will have counted as a public service.

韦弗是唯一一位在今年我们的所有第一故事精选中出现两次的作家，一旦完成所有政治数学计算，我相信对巨石强森的剖析将被视为一项公共服务。

If Johnson runs in 2020, I think Weaver’s name should be on the ticket.

如果约翰逊参加 2020 年竞选，我认为韦弗的名字应该出现在选票上。

Sari BottonEssays editor, Longreads

Sari Botton 长篇读物散文编辑

## Gloria Allred’s Crusade (Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker)

## 格洛丽亚·奥尔雷德的十字军东征（Jia Tolentino，《纽约客》）

In her first print feature for The New Yorker, Tolentino perfectly captures iconic anti-discrimination lawyer Gloria Allred, who is currently litigating major cases against Bill Cosby and President Donald Trump, and who has played a key role in changing attitudes and legislation regarding rape and sexual assault.

在她为《纽约客》撰写的首部印刷特稿中，托伦蒂诺完美地展现了标志性的反歧视律师格洛丽亚·奥尔雷德 (Gloria Allred)，她目前正在针对比尔·考斯比 (Bill Cosby) 和唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 总统提起重大诉讼，并在改变有关强奸和性侵犯的态度和立法方面发挥了关键作用。

Tolentino lends insight into Allred’s passion, showing how she came by her conviction for her work very personally, after being raped in the early 1970s, surviving an illegal abortion, and learning that other women she met at the hospital had died there.

托伦蒂诺深入了解了奥尔雷德的热情，展示了她在 20 世纪 70 年代初被强奸、非法堕胎后幸存下来，并得知她在医院遇到的其他女性都在那里去世后，如何对自己的工作抱有非常个人化的信念。

Danielle JacksonContributing editor, Longreads

丹妮尔·杰克逊（Danielle Jackson）特约编辑，Longreads

## Kelela Is Ready For You Now (Lakin Starling, The Fader)

## Kelela 已为您做好准备（Lakin Starling、The Fader）

The drama and tension in celebrity profiles often feels manufactured.

名人简介中的戏剧性和紧张感常常让人感觉是制造出来的。

That’s because journalists have the difficult job of revealing something extraordinary in the performance of the mundane, often within a rigid framework approved by gatekeepers.

这是因为记者的工作很困难，要在平凡的表演中揭示一些非凡的东西，而且往往是在守门人批准的严格框架内。

We get details about dinner plates and Target carts that ultimately reveal very little.

我们获得了有关餐盘和塔吉特购物车的详细信息，但最终透露的信息很少。

Like the best stories in any genre, the most meaningful profiles occur when real life peeks through and everyone involved shows some vulnerability, including the reporter.

就像任何类型中最好的故事一样，当现实生活一瞥并且涉及的每个人（包括记者）都表现出一些脆弱性时，最有意义的人物形象就会出现。

I love this profile of electronic R&B artist Kelela for the moments of spontaneous connectivity between interviewer and interviewee.

我喜欢电子 R&B 艺术家 Kelela 的这篇简介，因为采访者和受访者之间自发建立联系的时刻。

Perhaps because they’re both artists who are black women and close in age, but writer Lakin Starling gives Kelela the space to be “not at her best” while talking about work, and not working, on the brink of an album release.

也许是因为她们都是黑人女性艺术家，而且年龄相近，但作家拉金·斯塔林在专辑发行前夕谈论工作时，给了凯莱拉“不在最佳状态”的空间，而不是在工作。

When Kelela explains why she has chosen a particular spa for a body scrub ( “They don’t touch me in a white way.

当 Kelela 解释为什么她选择一个特定的水疗中心进行身体磨砂时（“它们不会以白色的方式接触我。

They aren’t so careful with me.”) a lot about the comfort of their relationship is revealed.

他们对我没那么小心。”）他们的关系中透露出很多关于舒适感的内容。

Starling includes lots of details about touch and the body in this profile — there’s talk about Kelela’s back pain, and Lakin takes time to marvel at how the light touches Kelela’s brown skin.

斯塔琳在这篇简介中包含了许多关于触摸和身体的细节——其中谈到了凯莱拉的背痛，拉金花了一些时间惊叹于光线如何接触凯莱拉的棕色皮肤。

The profile feels like a warm breeze, treating its subject like a full human being, with a body, inner thoughts, and an important and challenging body of work.

侧面像一股温暖的微风，将其主题视为一个完整的人，有身体、内心思想以及重要且具有挑战性的作品。

Sometimes the state of publishing demands that black storytellers turn their pens toward subjects that are palatable to white audiences, or to make blatant, overt political statements that keep them on the race beat.

有时，出版业的现状要求黑人故事讲述者将笔转向白人观众可接受的主题，或者发表公然、公开的政治声明，以保持他们在竞选中的领先地位。

Often, the black avant-garde doesn’t get sufficient due until their output is co-opted by someone white or is somehow mainstreamed.

通常，黑人前卫艺术在他们的作品被白人吸纳或以某种方式主流化之前，并没有得到足够的回报。

This profile quietly dismantles all of that.

这篇简介悄然瓦解了这一切。

Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads

Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑

## Pet Project, Megan Greenwell (Esquire)

## 宠物项目，梅根·格林威尔（Esquire）

What has the internet done to keep you sane in 2017?

2017 年，互联网做了哪些事情让你保持理智？

The sweet whisper of ASMR?

ASMR 的甜蜜耳语？

Calming slime and glitter videos?

平静的粘液和闪光视频？

For me, it’s been the heckin’ pupperinos of We Rate Dogs, served up on Instagram and Twitter daily, speaking the language only we know: of fluffers and boopers, of the affirmation that 15/10 we would pet these dogs forever.

对我来说，它就是《We Rate Dogs》中的小可爱们，每天都在 Instagram 和 Twitter 上发布，说着只有我们知道的语言：毛茸茸的东西和 boopers，以及 15/10 我们会永远抚摸这些狗的肯定。

Greenwell writes my favorite kind of profile: the bewildered internet famous.

格林威尔写了我最喜欢的个人简介：困惑的网络名人。

There was never any “we” to We Rate Dogs, just Matt Nelson, a freshman at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, who in 2015 “started an absurdist-humor Twitter account dedicated to dogs.

《We Rate Dogs》中从来没有任何“我们”，只有北卡罗来纳州布伊斯溪坎贝尔大学的新生马特·尼尔森 (Matt Nelson)，他于 2015 年“创建了一个专门针对狗的荒诞幽默 Twitter 账户。

‘Here we have a Japanese Irish Setter.

“这里有一只日本爱尔兰塞特犬。

Lost eye in Vietnam (?).

在越南失明了（？）。

Big fan of relaxing on stair.

非常喜欢在楼梯上放松。

8/10 would pet.'” It was a particular kind of internet language that could be replicated, with users sending in their photos and Nelson rating them on a sliding scale (with a curve, of course.)

8/10 会宠爱。”这是一种可以复制的特殊互联网语言，用户发送他们的照片，尼尔森按照滑动等级（当然是曲线）对它们进行评分。

It’s hard to know exactly how or why something catches fire on the internet, but when it does, it can threaten to take over your life.

很难确切地知道某些东西如何或为何在互联网上着火，但当它发生时，它可能会威胁到你的生活。

But Nelson keeps a remarkably calm head, part of a generation where internet fame is always a possibility if you’re doing things right.

但尼尔森保持着非常冷静的头脑，在这个世代，如果你做对了事情，在互联网上成名总是有可能的。

Because on the internet, no one knows you’re a college sophomore rating dogs.

因为在互联网上，没有人知道你是一名大学二年级学生，正在评级狗。