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
Happy 2013, and New News
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: 20x200, Jen Bekman, Martin Schneider, Merideth Harte, Paul Morris, Pollux, punctuation, Todd Londagin
This site turned eight at the new year, which is almost a million in internet years. What have we been doing with ourselves? After a couple of years in Chicago writing theater reviews and Groupons, I’m back in New York, getting to work with longtime hero Jen Bekman at 20×200 and living in hilly and historic Peekskill with wonder duo Todd Londagin and Merideth Harte. Co-Emdasher Martin Schneider is writing Box Office Boffo, Paul Morris (a.k.a. Pollux) is doing a tremendous amount of fun and productive things—take a look at his Pinterest, for one—and the erudite Jonathan Taylor is grad-schooling and writing.
Probably because my 20×200 bio links here, I’ve gotten a few emails asking when we’re going to start posting again, already. In 2012, I made a goal to get to Gmail Draft Zero. So how about getting to Blog Draft Zero in 2013? Look for posts we saved and forgot to finish, essays just missing that one copyright-free image, and cartoons that want only tender loving formatting. Our unofficial motto, after all, is “Old news is good news.” And, of course, there’s a whole world of symbols and punctuation and hieroglyphs and pictograms and semaphores to attend to.
Happy new year. And thanks for visiting, as always!
About us
Hello! I’m Emily Gordon, an editor, critic, copywriter, and internet lover since 1992. Emdashes, born in 2004, spent its formative years as a New Yorker fan blog. (The project garnered some nice compliments and press.) It’s now a collection of conversations—generally civilized—about punctuation, magazines, movies, design, and other things that stir me.
Over the years, I’ve worked with a small army of culture writers, editors, and artists. You can read all about the people who've helped build Emdashes here at “Who We?” (That’s a New Yorker joke. Old habits die hard.)
I welcome submissions, questions, corrections, and ardent, obsessive contributors. I also host occasional book-related contests and giveaways. Questioners and publishers, just email me.
Looking for The New Yorker magazine? Kudos on your classy taste. Here’s how to contact The New Yorker.
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.
Unsigned posts are by me; other columnists and contributors include Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, plus various guest stars.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of Emdashes webcomic “The Wavy Rule”).
The original Emdashes pencil logo was designed by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Some writing by Emily Gordon
- Liveblogging: the 2013 Street Fight Summit, a conference on hyperlocal business
- Reviews: as a theater critic at 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)
- At the scene: a festive downpour at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade; celebrating the lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- 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)
- Profiles: rising designers under 30 (for Print)
Some more clips to snack on pending updates and a redesign of this whole clips business
Blogroll highlights
- The Beautiful Sentence and Obscure Controversies (Emily’s distractions)
- Box Office Boffo (Martin Schneider on movies)
- World of Pollux (artist Paul Morris)
- Jonathan Taylor (scholar and critic)
- Carolita Johnson (cartoonist and rabble-rouser)
- My 2004-era blogroll (still current-ish!)
- Follow Emily on Twitter
- Befriend Emdashes on Facebook
- Get Emdashes swag at the CafePress emporium
No fear
Everything you tell or send me is off the record unless I ask for your permission to use it.
Advertise with Emdashes
Emdashes used to have ads, and it might again. Email me if you want to talk turkey.