Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines

Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
Weekly: Pick of the Issue
Bimonthly: Ask the Librarians

Submit a question for the next column.

Frequently:
Headline Shooter
Seal Barks
Eustace Google
Looked Into

The Squib Report
X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch
Letters & Challenges
On the Spot
Eds. | Personal

Your eyes and ears for the 2006 festival

Go See Steinberg, and These April Readings at McNally Robinson

Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: art, Bernard Malamud, books, bookstores, cartoons, covers, events, fiction, George Packer, Henry Miller, Iain Topliss, James Wolcott, Meg Wolitzer, museums, poetry, Russia, Saul Steinberg, theater, Wilhelm Reich, William Shawn

The energizingly clear-eyed James Wolcott writes:

Try not to miss the William Steig exhibition "From The New Yorker to Shrek" at the Jewish Museum before it vacates the premises on March 16. Not only are the drawings marvels of rumpled, urban-folk buoyancy and dyspepsia (Bernard Malamud stories reduced to a squiggly essence), but how many shows feature letters from Henry Miller, William Shawn, and Wilhelm Reich?

He also gives high praise (and with Wolcott, that means something) to The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg, by Iain Topliss, which he calls "superlative." I reviewed the book for Newsday and recommend it often; it provides further benefits in that every day, some jughead googles "topliss ladies," only to arrive right here on my site. Bonjour, seekers of toplissness! I hope you like highbrow/abstruse humor; va-va-voom.

(If you haven't read Wolcott's novel, The Catsitters, I can assure you you'll enjoy it. If you're reading this site, if you have any interest in city life and sex and drama and the mysteries of human contact, you're bound to lap it up. As Amazon likes to say, Look Inside.)

Also, these April readings at New York's McNally Robinson bookstore look particularly enticing to me:

Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 PM
Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten-Year Nap (Riverhead)
Meg Wolitzer laid bare the gender politics of the pre-feminist era in The Wife and wittily plumbed the aftermath of the sexual revolution in The Position. Now one of our funniest and most perceptive social observers turns her own forty-something generation in The Ten-Year Nap as she examines what happens when educated women “opt out” of the work force for a few years in order to be full-time mothers, and then somehow don’t find their way back. Join us for a reading and discussion with the author.

Thursday, April 3, 7:00 PM
Contemporary Russian Poetry: An Anthology (Dalkey Archive Press)
With authors Evgeny Bunimovich, Elena Fanailova, and Yuli Gugolev
And contributing translators John High, Margarita Shalina, and Matvei Yankelevich
Please note: This event requires an RSVP. To celebrate the release of the comprehensive anthology Contemporary Russian Poetry, three Russian poets visit New York courtesy of Dalkey Archive Press, CEC ArtsLink and the National Endowment for the Arts. Join us for a special bilingual event as visiting poets Bunimovich, Fanailova, and Gugolev read from their own work and selections from the anthology, with English translations presented by contributing translators High, Shalina, and Yankelevich. The reading will be followed by a Q&A and a reception with the poets and translators. Please RSVP by Tuesday April 1st to chartblay@cecartslink.org.

Saturday, April 5, 1:00 PM
George Packer, author of Betrayed (Faber & Faber) and Assassin’s Gate (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
In early 2007, writer George Packer published an article in The New Yorker about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the American invasion, with little or no U.S. protection. Betrayed is a new play at Culture Project based on Packer’s interviews with interpreters in Iraq and around the Middle East. This afternoon at McNally Robinson, Packer will talk about his reporting experience, his comprehensive indictment of the Iraq War in his book The Assassin’s Gate, and the experience of creating a play from real experiences. Attendees will then be invited to attend the matinee showing of Betrayed at Culture Project at 3:00 (discounted tickets may be available). Join us for an exclusive conversation co-hosted by Culture Project.

0 comments

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, it may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Thanks for waiting.)

Your name

Your email address

Your website address

Remember personal info?

Your comments

Who we?

Emdashes, founded December 2004 BY Emily Gordon, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

Affinities | Blurbs

We welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.

No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.

This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.

A few clips

Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
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 (for Print)
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)

More clips.

Tell me more

They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.

Primary sources

The New Yorker
Events listed by the magazine
Web resources: New Yorker writers and artists
Books, Organizations, &c.

Founded by Emily Gordon, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.

The Rossosphere