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John McPhee Wins George Polk Career Award; Semicolons Are Vindicated
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: awards, John McPhee, Louis Menand, Lynne Truss, newyorker.com, punctuation, TOTT, usage
New York’s Long Island University announced this year’s George Polk Awards for excellence in journalism in 14 categories, led by a writer for the New Yorker.Congratulations! Here’s McPhee’s New Yorker bio (I don’t much like using the abbreviation “bio” as a legitimate word, but “biography” makes me think of books and A&E specials, so there isn’t a perfect synonym), with links to several of his most well-known pieces.
The announcement from the school’s Brooklyn campus said John McPhee, a New Yorker non-fiction writer, has won the George Polk Career Award for “his extraordinary contributions as a prolific author, essayist and educator, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of creative non-fiction.”
Speaking of words and things, here’s a Louis Menand-approved semicolon, on a New York City Transit sign, no less. (It’s Lynne Truss-approved, too, which may rile Menand, who doesn’t have much truck with Truss, as you recall.) Dig the funny correction, too. Too bad Times reporters probably can’t freelance for The New Yorker; this would’ve been a perfect Talk of the Town.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, 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
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- 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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