Best of 2023: Profiles – Longreads

Profiles go deep and assemble original details to convey the essence of a person, a place, or both. These are the stories that gave us a keen insight into the lives of others, selected from hundreds of editors in 2023.

Skip Hollandsworth | Texas Monthly | May 8, 2023 | 7,531 words

Before May 24, 2022, Kimberly Matalubio, a part-time local reporter and mother of six in Uvalde, Texas, was shy and quiet. After that horrific day when two teachers and 19 children, including her daughter Lexi, were murdered at Robb Elementary School, Mata-Rubio was forever changed. She was heartbroken, but at the same time she felt she had to speak out and do everything she could to fight for justice for Lexi. Shortly after her shooting, she testified about her gun violence at her hearing. After that, she began giving her lectures at her home and at gatherings in Washington, DC. She became a fierce advocate for gun control, and she even met with Ted Cruz to convince him to support an assault weapons ban. (No spoiler, he didn’t.) Over the next few months, she realized she had a voice. (In fact, she recently ran for mayor of Uvalde, but lost in a special election last month.) I’ve sat down many times to write about why I chose this novel by Skip Hollandsworth. However, the attempt has been canceled many times. They all feel empty and repetitive because I’ve written versions of the same before. My pick for 2022 in this category was also a Uvalde profile about student Caitlin Gonzalez, so I can’t help but return to this town and this tragedy. Perhaps immersing yourself in a tragic story is a form of emotional escape, a way to numb the constant onslaught of violence in the world. Hollandsworth’s work reminds us that these stories do not end when our attention shifts, but continue to transform communities, families, and individuals. This is an emotional, difficult, but necessary portrait of a grieving mother finding meaningful ways to honor her daughter’s life and perhaps help create a better world for all of us. —CLR

Kelly Howley | New York Magazine | June 21, 2023 | 7,555 words

For the second year in a row, my favorite profile was written by the incomparable Kelly Howley, one of the great chroniclers of America’s right-wing resurgence. Last year, I adored and warmed to the profile of anti-abortion activist Marjorie Dannenfelser. This year, Howley turned his attention to Clarence and Ginny Thomas. The former is, of course, the conservative Supreme Court justice who was allowed to testify in court despite being credibly accused of sexual harassment and laying the groundwork for the Brett Kavanaugh debacle a quarter century later, and who just recently , who was exposed as having received expensive gifts from various billionaires. . Thomas’ wife, Ginny, founded a political consulting firm with funds provided by one of the billionaires and used her influence within the Beltway to support the January 6th riot. In this profile, Howley reveals how the almost alchemical bond between the Thomases makes them such a powerful and devastating force in the American project. The insights here are as sharp as the prose. “There was something about Gini and Clarence that strengthened and refined their shared radicalism, something that went beyond their shared intolerance of ambiguity,” Howley writes. “There was a fatalism, a set of intertwined beliefs that grew out of lived experiences of racism and a whole heavily armed edifice of white ignorance.” Towards the end of the piece, I whispered to no one in particular. Fuck. —SD

Wyatt Williams | Bitter Southerner | September 4, 2023 | 6,303 words

The stories I like best are slow and flavorful, filled with love that transcends pain. Wyatt Williams’ ode to her mother, Louisiana, and songwriter Lucinda Williams is one I return to often. I am reminded of how much great writing can get lost when we are delivering a story or struggling with how to get our point across. Each time you get a new resonance. Williams’ mother and Lucinda were born in 1953 in Louisiana, a state best known for its hurricane destruction. Both families endured a storm of violence, alcoholism, and intergenerational trauma. Williams writes: “She had been through crises before. She had her own way of dealing with them,” he says of his mother, but also alludes to Lucinda and Louisiana. A closer look at all three reveals a special kind of resilience. While writers struggle with how to convey raw, tangled ideas and emotions, Williams believes that just as you listen to a song over and over again, discovering something new with each spin. , creating beauty out of chaos through sheer repetition. “It seems almost impossible for someone to spend 14 years writing a 34-line poem,” he writes. “But one thing to understand about this work is that it’s not about writing down words, it’s about learning to see, to look at the world and your own life, and to relearn to find shapes and patterns. This story is about working hard to create something out of nothing, naming something you don’t yet understand, trying to find meaning, and perhaps gaining some kind of peace. It’s a story about doing the work and paying deep attention. These are universal truths that we cannot let go of. —K.S.

Nate Rogers | ringer | April 12, 2023 | 5,170 words

When you ask people to list their most memorable profiles, they almost always cite something determined by proximity. There’s a good reason for that. Spending hours or days in deep conversation (or just fishing) with a subject generally helps break down the walls of image maintenance and creates raw enough moments for good writers to dig into. But as Nate Rogers’ article on Paul Dotschney proves, there are many other ways to write a meaningful profile. Dotschney is known for his Twitter persona, Drill the Internet, who spent 15 years honing satirical shitposting to its highest brilliance and helped build his culture’s dominant comic voice online in the process. It is known to a wide range of people. It’s his art in near-uninterrupted performance, which makes the profile’s mundane background (anonymous, old-fashioned, his LA greasy spoon) all the more enjoyable. As with his other profiles, Rogers provides a broad overview of Docheny’s early life and resume, dutifully weaving in second-hand interviews for texture and background, but the real value of this profile lies in his social It lies in how it fights against the ideas of art of the time. Dotschney/Drill is not a provocateur. He is a person who loves making things. But by a twist of fate, Twitter became the first place I connected with people. And as that platform moves closer and closer to obsolescence, Mr. Dotschney’s next steps become even more uncertain. In a sea of ​​stories that seek to examine the role of the “creator,” Rogers’ profile seeks to examine the creative instead. impulse— and all the more powerful for that. —PR

Gabriela Paiella | GQ Sports | June 13, 2023 | 5,175 words

Everyone loves a good underdog story, and this one is especially fun. The Eddie IK Big Wave Invitational is a surfing contest that relies on the whims of nature. To take place, Waimea Bay’s waves must reach at least a butt-clenching 40 feet. If conditions are right, competitors will compete around the world to get there. North Shore resident Luke Shepardson’s commute wasn’t all that difficult (though he still got stuck in traffic and drove off down the road, leaving his wife in the car). That also happened to be his commute time. that’s right. Luke worked as a lifeguard at the event, taking turns riding waves in between patching up other competitors. Even though he wasn’t even a pro on the circuit, he rode waves the size of four-story buildings, beat some of the world’s greatest surfers, and won tournaments.After the win, Luke finished his shift and headed home to watch the game. The Lion King along with his children. As Gabriela Paiella explains in her fascinating profile, this was exactly the kind of Luke known as “Casual Luke.”in Hawaii. It’s like being called ‘Nervous Matt’ on Manhattan Island.” Luke’s down-to-earth personality permeates the film, and Payella clearly respects his different attitude than other sports stars. became. Luke received money from Eddie, but not enough to make his life easier. Although he lives with his wife and his two children in his one-bedroom apartment in an increasingly exclusive area, he has “returned to obscurity” and made his own home in this little paradise. I dream of buying it. There’s nothing more. It’s easy to see why, as Payella paints a lovely picture of his family life in this beautiful surf town. It’s true that it’s expensive, but its elegance is something everyone knows. (Luke’s mother says this after Eddie: I changed the diapers of 1st and 2nd place. ” This profile oozes sun, sand, salt, and joy. Everyone loves an underdog story, and everyone loves a casual rook. After all, he understands all the important things. —C.W.