David Treuer on learning to fence with Maître Michel Sebastiani and learning to write with Toni Morrison.

“Darrell was already steaming over his split from his girlfriend, and that night, Stan — the better fighter, the better-loved friend, the local boxing hero — also bested him on the dance floor...” By Tim Elfrink.

In late June, a gunman slipped into a beloved black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and massacred nine people who had met for Bible study. The slaughter of innocents in a house of worship garnered news coverage across the country, and reporters from the nation's most powerful media organizations began working... By Doyle Murphy.

For failing to pay parking tickets, court fees, and other petty municipal citations, black residents of Greater St. Louis are ending up behind bars. By Whitney Benns and Blake Strode.

“You are cured of your hepatitis after a course of Sovaldi, a new pill that clears the disease in 95 percent of cases. The price of this near-certain cure: $84,000. Each pill costs $1,000. You are fortunate to live in New York, the state where Medicaid coverage of the drug is the most generous. Many states pay for only the sickest patients. You are, relatively speaking, not that sick.” By Sarah Resnick.

Zadie Smith reviews “The Polar Express,” a film directed by Robert Zemeckis, “Anomalisa,” a film directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, and “On the Suffering of the World,” by Arthur Schopenhauer, translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale.

One year after a young pilot plunged a German airliner into the remote French Alps—a suicide that transfixed and horrified the world—Joshua Hammer investigates what really happened that day

David Milch, the storied mind also behind 'Deadwood,' changed television. Now, according to a lawsuit, the racetrack regular has lost his homes, owes the IRS $17 million and is on a $40-a-week allowance. Still, his supporters stay close: "He's brilliant.” This story first appeared in the Feb. 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

A jewelry feud, set in Jaipur and on Madison Avenue. By Eric Konigsberg.

Sheldon Adelson made billions in Macau and transformed himself into a GOP kingmaker. But has he overplayed his hand? By Matt Isaacs.

Asunta Fong Yang was adopted as a baby by a wealthy Spanish couple. Aged 12, she was found dead beside a country road. Not long after, her mother and father were arrested. By Giles Tremlett.

Harvey Levin runs a gossip site that operates like an intelligence agency. How did it become so powerful? By Nicholas Schmidle.

Scientists Pat and Peter Shaw died recently in a suicide pact. Their daughters tell the story of their plan - and their remarkable lives. By Julia Medew.

How a corporate spy swiped plans for DuPont’s billion-dollar color formula. By Del Quentin Wilber.

The civil war is escalating in southeastern Turkey, with the government pledging to stamp out militant Kurds. Young Kurds, who used to hurl stones and Molotov cocktails, are now fighting on the front lines in several cities. By Katrin Kuntz.

Beverly “Guitar” Watkins is probably the greatest living blues guitarist that no one has ever heard of. By Rachael Maddux.

Few could have guessed that the league’s return would become so bloody, bitter and, most of all, emblematic of how power in the NFL truly works. By Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr.

The improbable story of a young diplomat and a remorseful assassin

The battle over parsimony is actually the story of a war between biologists and a scientific society with a reputation for bullying.

There were so many opportunities for the accident not to happen—the collision between a Legacy 600 private jet and a Boeing 737 carrying 154 people. But on September 29, 2006, high above the Amazon, a long, thin thread of acts and omissions brought the two airplanes together... By William Langewiesche. (Jan. ’09)