Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists

NEXT WAVE collects the work of today’s finest young writers– nineteen creative reporters whose work builds upon foundations laid by previous generations, dating back more than fifty years to John Hersey, Lillian Ross, Gay Talese, and Tom Wolfe. Naysayers predicted the decline of long-form journalism with the rise of the Internet. But NEXT WAVE is evidence that literary journalism is alive and well, and that artful craftsmanship will never go out of fashion. Each chapter includes a bio, personal essay, and an outstanding magazine or newspaper story from a different up-and-coming writer.

Stories include: A poor man who discovers a $1 million bill. The tragedy of a beloved pet chimp run amok. The sad yet hopeful tale of a first-year teacher in an impoverished school. The Florida woman who died in her house—and nobody noticed. The confusing genetics of one of the world’s greatest athletes. Inside the Washington, DC, subway crash that took nine lives. The prosecutor, caught in a sting by Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator,” who takes his own life. A father and his autistic son, out for a swim, are swept out to sea. The son who secretly tried to destroy his father’s venerable worldwide reputation. A woman who legally abandons her child. An unthinkable crime in the vineyard that produces burgundy’s finest wine. The last days of a former star basketball player, chasing his demons through the jungles of Brazil. The horse-track veterinarian who ends the lives of beautiful creatures. The fortitude of a shrimp boat captain trying to maintain his family’s long tradition in a changing world. A reluctant high-school football player who died on the practice field; and the coach who may have driven him to it. A good woman who may have been wrongly convicted of killing her adopted, troubled child. A wounded soldier who is given a new skull. And profiles of movie critic Roger Ebert and pop diva Britney Spears that offer rare and substantial glimpses behind the curtain of celebrity.

“Some mighty great journalism here. I just wish I had assigned more of it.”
--Graydon Carter, Editor, Vanity Fair

“When young editors (or aspiring editors) ask me where we find writers and
reporters at Esquire, I tell them that all you have to do is look. Next Wave is
a blueprint for the generation that will follow these writers.”
--David Granger, Editor-in-Chief, Esquire

“And literary journalism was supposed to be dying? This collection is proof positive
that ambitious, inspired non-fiction storytellings has life in it yet.”
--Adam Moss, Editor, New York

“Even more than journalism as literature, it rips (and soars) as the truth about the
way we live and tell each other who we are.”
--Terry McDonell, Editor, Sports Illustrated

“The collection of young writers in this anthology have ambition and brains and,
thankfully, many, many years left of finding the kinds of gems that make us stop what we
are doing for the sake of a good read.
--Chad Millman, Editor-in-Chief, ESPN The Magazine

“Next Wave is proof that the gift of telling true stories has been passed triumphantly
into the hands of a new generation of storytellers.”
--Jon Franklin, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, author, Writing for Story

"Many of these stories seem destined to become tomorrow's classics."
--Patsy Sims, Director, Goucher College MFA program in Creative Nonfiction

“Amid all the hand-wringing and nay-saying about the future of journalism, Next
Wave offers abundant, compelling proof that non-fiction literature is fervently alive and
well in the hands of a new generation of writers. This book is a worthy successor to such
classics as Tom Wolfe's anthology, The New Journalism.
--Samuel G. Freedman, award-winning author, columnist, and professor, Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism.