Buzz's short nonfiction pieces have appeared in a number of top US magazines, including Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine.

Some of Buzz's finest journalistic work has appeared in Vanity Fair, where he has been a contributing editor for more than a decade. The articles, which reflect Buzz's depth and range as a writer, include subjects as varied as the issue of alleged fabrications in the nonfiction bestseller Running with Scissors; the Duke University lacrosse scandal; radio personality Don Imus; Pete Rose; the brutal killing of a gay soldier at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky; and the first in-depth profile of former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson trial. Buzz's VF piece about fabulist-cum-reporter Stephen Glass provided the basis for the 2003 film “Shattered Glass,” directed by Billy Ray. His August 2007 Vanity Fair article “Gone Like the Wind,” about the saga of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, was optioned by Universal Pictures for a film to be directed by Peter Berg.

A sampling of Buzz's magazine pieces:

"The Runaway Doctor," Vanity Fair, January 2011 How did Mark Weinberger go from esteemed surgeon to fugitive, accused of mutilating patients to enrich himself? Buzz Bissinger investigates. Read the full article >	"Inventing Ford Country," Vanity Fair, March 2009 The 1939 movie Stagecoach created three icons: John Wayne, John Ford, and the 30,000 acres of glory on the Utah-Arizona border known as Monument Valley. It was a pioneering rancher, Harry Goulding, who brought Hollywood to his home, and helped shape America's vision of the West. Read the full article >
"Gone Like the Wind," Vanity Fair, August 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was in pursuit of the Triple Crown when he shattered his leg—and America's heart—at the 2006 Preakness. With stories from Barbaro's team and exclusive access to owner Gretchen Jackson's diaries, Buzz Bissinger revisits the brief, meteoric rise of a Thoroughbred phenomenon, and the epic struggle to save his life. The story was a finalist in the National Magazine Awards for feature writing. Read the full article >	"Is Augusten Burroughs the Next James Frey," Vanity Fair, January 2007 Writing about his dysfunctional childhood helped Augusten Burroughs heal—and get rich. But the foster family he excoriated is now suing for libel. Meeting the real-life "Finches," Buzz Bissinger wonders who traumatized whom. Read the full article >
"Duke's Lacrosse Scandal," Vanity Fair, July 2006 As three Duke lacrosse players await trial for rape and kidnapping, Buzz Bissinger hears one witness's shocking story and investigates a reckless spiral that led to tragedy.	"Don Imus's Last Stand," Vanity Fair, February 2006 A 40-year radio veteran with close to three million die-hard fans, Don Imus looks as if he's been to hell and back. He has. Spending a week with the merciless shock jock, Buzz Bissinger discovers what makes him tick—and explode. Photographs by Mark Seliger. Read the full article >
"Absent Hearts" Vanity Fair, May 2005 A third of the students at Fountain–Fort Carson High School have parents in the military; as a result, even football games are played in Iraq's shadow. For this small Colorado town, the war is not a political issue but a series of missed graduations, missed birthdays, and lonely nights. Read the full article >	"Shattered Glass," Vanity Fair, September 1998 At 25, Stephen Glass was the most sought-after young reporter in the nation's capital, producing knockout articles for magazines ranging from The New Republic to Rolling Stone. Trouble was, he made things up—sources, quotes, whole stories—in a breathtaking web of deception that emerged as the most sustained fraud in modern journalism. The story became the basis for the acclaimed 2003 film "Shattered Glass", starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny and Steve Zahn. Read the full article >

More Vanity Fair Pieces...

• “Michael Bloomberg: The Mogul of City Hall”—Vanity Fair, December 2003
  
  
• “The Real Pete Rose: It’s So Much Worse than you Thought”—Vanity Fair, September 2001
  
  
• “The Final Days of Joe Dimaggio”—Vanity Fair, September 2000
  
  
• “The Army’s Brutal Gay Murder”—Vanity Fair, May 2000
  
  
• “The Famous and the Dead: The case of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has become an international cause célèbre. But those championing his fight for a new trial face a stubborn foe: the widow of the policeman he was convicted of murdering in 1981”—Vanity Fair, August 1999
  
  
• “The Last Harrer: The Author of ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ Confronts his Nazi Past”—Vanity Fair, October 1997
  
  
• “The Cop who Freed O.J.: Mark Fuhrman Fights for his Life”—Vanity Fair, February 1997
  
  
• “Main Line Madcap: Tracy Lord, the willful heiress played by Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, had a real-life model, Hope Montgomery Scott, who ruled a fading Wasp aristocracy until her death.”—Vanity Fair, October 1995
  
  
• “Lone Star Hate: On the Trail of Texas’s Brutal Gay Killings”—Vanity Fair, February 1995

New York Times Sports Magazine Play, June 3, 2007

"My Right Arm"

“What Kerry Wood wouldn’t give to have the last decade back. To rule the world from the mound as the greatest pitcher of his generation. To not be the guy about whom every manager with a can’t miss prospect wonders, ‘What went wrong?’

Read the full article >

Philadelphia Magazine, December 1999

“My Son Zachary: Sixteen years ago, Buzz Bissinger became the father of twin boys. Today, one is driving, dating, standing on the brink of manhood. The other, oxygen-deprived at birth, never will. A story of false hope and lost dreams and love in all its agony and wonder.”

Sports Illustrated, October 4, 2004

“Return to Friday Night Lights”

ESPN THE MAGAZINE, September 26, 2005

‘What Makes Albert Pujols so Great?”

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