Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
Ask the Librarians archive
About Emdashes | Email us
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
“Many New York blogs are about New Yorkers; Emdashes is about The New Yorker (mostly). Although it’s an online magazine about a magazine, it has a full life of its own. Along with analyses of each week’s New Yorker contents, it runs its own cartoons, columns, interviews, spot coverage, contests, and so on. Emdashes counts among its many devoted fans The New Yorker itself; the magazine’s head librarians, Jon Michaud and Erin Overbey, started answering reader questions in 2006 in a column on the Emdashes site. (Last year, The New Yorker took over “Ask the Librarians” at its own site.)…” —The Village Voice, “I Blog New York: Your Guide to Gotham’s Best”
“This isn’t some lowbrow gossip site. Don’t poke your musky head in there thinking you’re going to discover what makes John Seabrook ‘tick,’ or be treated to grisly samurai tales about Henry Finder’s ruthless mastery as an editorial infighter. It’s a more belletristic enterprise than that, with a monthly column contributed by the New Yorker’s librarians, whom I believe once tried to have me abducted.” —James Wolcott, vanityfair.com
“Emily Gordon is a writer and an editor at Print magazine. She also edits Emdashes, a site dedicated to The New Yorker and (more or less) related subjects, from movies to semicolons to Ricky Gervais. The logo and site was designed by none other than uber-fabulous House of Pretty.” —Debbie Millman
“Fans of The New Yorker are a dedicated bunch. They relish its arrival every week, check the bylines, and then dive right into a 20,000-word piece. It’s no wonder this passion for a beloved magazine has spawned a site devoted to its pages past and present. Whip-smart writer Emily Gordon obsessively blogs about all topics great and small related to her favorite periodical…. Whether you’re a cover-to-cover obsessive or just a grazer passionate about “Talk of the Town,” you’ll find Ms. Gordon has created a delicious companion to America’s best magazine.” —Yahoo! Picks (which interviewed Emily)
“The New Yorker between the lines is the mission of this site that, though unaffiliated with the magazine, is extremely attuned to its subtext, syntax, and semiotics.” —Manhattan User’s Guide, which named Emdashes one of “The 400”—“a thoroughly subjective selection of 400 links—from institutional websites to single-person blogs—that we think make a distinctive contribution to life in New York.” Later on the site: “The subtext, syntax, and semiotics of The New Yorker.”
“Most footers are useless. They usually contain a handful of throw-away links, maybe a copyright statement, and contact information. Nobody reads them, because they’re not worth reading…. One of my favorite footers is found on Emily Gordon’s blog. This is a writer’s footer. This is information to be enjoyed. She talks about herself, offering notes on what she’s written and why she’s writing. She directly addresses her reader assuring him of his privacy. When I get to her footer and see all that she offers down there at the bottom of the page, I feel like she expected me to read that far, and is acknowledging my visit. I love that she’s taken the opportunity to offer me more information than I asked for, in a place I didn’t expect to find it. I feel rewarded at the end of reading her blog, and that’s what I call a wonderful user experience.” —Amber Simmons, A List Apart
“Emdashes [is] a uniquely geeky literary blog devoted to loving The New Yorker. It’s written with style, grace, and the obsessive love that only a true nerd can feel for something that will never, ever help them get laid.” —Jeff Simmermon, And I Am Not Lying
“I get a little too excited about The New Yorker, and sometimes people’s eyes glaze over as I go on and on. It’s nice to go to a place where you all understand the passion.” —Linda Kao (New Yorker reader since 1996, Emdashes reader since 2008)
“A supercool blog about The New Yorker that anyone interested in the magazine’s past, present, and future should be reading.” —Quiet Bubble
“Emdashes is wholly New Yorker-centric, for moments when one wants to read the amusing Q & A with The New Yorker’s librarians, or to ponder issues raised in the magazine. Emily Gordon is a smart and generous blogger; how I feel about The New Yorker depends on the day and the issue.” —Biffles at the Bijou
“Give me quality of writing over quantity of posts any day. That’s one of the reasons I recommend a [then-]four-month-old blog on The New Yorker that oozes good stuff. You don’t have to be a refugee from John McPhee’s three-part series on geology to enjoy blogger Emily Gordon’s lovely touch with the language, as she alternately strokes and skewers the masthead.” —Lisa Stone (On fourteen “bloggers you may not know, but should,” for Jay Rosen’s PressThink)
“Read her blog about the magazine and anything else that strikes her fancy. Amazing collection of New Yorker links; nobody can touch Emily’s hard work there.” —Kevin Fitzpatrick, Dorothy Parker Society of New York
“Un blogue qui se consacre à disséquer la réputée snob publication, dans ses moindres détails.” —Sylvie St-Jacques, La Presse
Emdashes in the news:
In the Toronto Globe & Mail, pronouncing on the DVD archive. They printed a poem by me: “My Mother Saved Copies of The New Yorker.”
In the Daily News, on that notorious Brooklyn cover (no longer findable).
The La Presse interview. Test your French!
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
Want to know more about the people who contribute to Emdashes, and the secret meanings behind our column titles? All about us.
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive contributors. Click here to email us.
We host occasional book giveaways. Publishers, please email us for our postal address.
Our favorite things | Compliments and press
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Everything you tell or send us is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.