Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
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
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
You. At least, in part. And not by me. I'll explain.
Like me, you read The New Yorker. With interest. Loyally, actively, critically. Ardently. You love to wrangle with it. Perhaps you've just picked it up for the first time. Don't you wish you could ask it a few questions? To confirm a subtle change that no one else seems to have noticed? To go behind the scenes of the DVD archive with some juicy institutional knowledge? To debunk a hoary myth once and for all? Or a other dozen things? Did you ever have a New Yorker question that could only be answered by someone who's actually there?
Well, now you can.
Starting soon, two New Yorker staffers (whose identities will remain a secret for now) will answer the best of your questions each month, right here on emdashes. Before that can happen, of course, these wise experts need some good, fun, challenging questions to answer. So what have you always wanted to know? Email me all your queries about New Yorker history, its writers, editors, cartoons, style, subjects, design—anything that's ever fascinated or confounded you—and I'll put them into the right hands. Don't bother inquiring who asked who to the Condé Nast masked ball, but almost everything else goes.
If your question is chosen and I print the (for now) mystery columnists' answer on emdashes, you're free to either use your name or initials or remain anonymous, so please indicate in your email which you prefer. Have fun, be specific, don't hold back, and can't wait to see what you ask—not to mention the answers.
Update: I've gotten some swell entries so far today. Remember, it's got to be a high-quality question—a real puzzler or a triumph of arcana, or perhaps the soul of elegant simplicity—to be posted and answered here. So keep brainstorming! Quipsters, you make my inbox shake like a bowlful of jelly, but I'm only forwarding the real stuff, so try to use your power for good. So email in those questions. Only questions emailed to me will reach the desk of people who will answer them!
Further update: I've revealed more about the columnists here.
(There was a drawing by a young lady named Brooke here, which I'll fill in later after I've transferred the image from blogspot; here are more vibrant body parts.)
About us
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.
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Tell me more
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.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
- Follow us on Twitter
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- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
No fear
Everything you tell or send us is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.