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And Now For a Warm Welcome
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 are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to read more about us individually? That's so nice! Here you can learn a lot more about the Emdashes team, the mysterious-sounding names of our daily and non-daily columns, and our guest contributors.
We welcome tips, questions, and comments, and are always looking for ardent new contributors who care about letters (postal, typographical, admiring, literary, and tough-love). Here's how to contact us.
Occasionally, we host book giveaways, and review books here as often as we can. Publishers, please e-mail us and we'll send you an appropriate mailing address.
Tell me more
They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Proposal: a better-designed Metrocard (for A Brief Message)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: 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)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Micro-essay: on saving time through inspiration (for A Brief Message)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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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.