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Filed under: The Squib Report Tagged: Benjamin Chambers, essays, fiction, Katherine White, poetry, The Complete New Yorker
Emily and I are very pleased to introduce a new member to the Emdashes team. His name is Benjamin Chambers, and some of you will recall his e-mails on past New Yorker essays and his post comments over the past weeks. We’ve been very impressed by his powers of expression, and we look forward to his sure-to-be-insightful posts.
Benjamin’s column will focus on fiction and will be called The Katharine Wheel, aptly named after The New Yorker’s first fiction editor, Katharine White. We feel certain that Benjamin will roam wherever his interest takes him, stories appearing in The New Yorker each week, stories from the distant past encountered in The Complete New Yorker, novels by people associated with The New Yorker, and so on. And if he has any diverting comments on any other subject, we hope he’ll feel free to contribute those too!
Benjamin is the editor of The King’s English, a prizewinning online magazine that specializes in novella-length fiction, which you should definitely check out. He received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and has had his fiction, poetry, and essays published in numerous journals, including The Iowa Review, ZYZZYVA, MANOA, and the Mississippi Review.
I’ve enjoyed corresponding with him in recent days, and I’m sure his wit, wisdom, and good taste will enhance this humble project. Welcome, Benjamin!
—Martin Schneider
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.
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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.
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)
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- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
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Comments
I’m thrilled about it. I’m delighted that we’ll be covering fiction in such detail, and given the 1925-to-infinity scope, what a beat! Benjamin, I know Emdashers (like haberdashers, but with fewer pins and feathers) will enjoy reading you as much as I do.
You guys are much too kind. I’m very pleased to have this opportunity, though. First post, coming right up!
Welcome, Benjamin! I’m so glad emdashes is embracing someone who actually reads — and likes! — the fiction. I always read it but I think I’m a member of a very very small minority.
I think lots of people read the fiction! At least, I see blog posts about it here and there. Anyway, I read it faithfully now.
Thanks, little sister. I don’t always like the fiction, but I respect it - nobody does it as well as The New Yorker.
What a great opportunity.
Thanks.