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Exciting Emdashes Contest! ¿What Should We Call the Upside-Down Question Mark?
Filed under: books, cartoons, contests, Pablo Neruda, Paul Morris, Paul Shaw, poetry, punctuation, typography
Above: A haunting dramatization of the dilemma in question. Click to enlarge.
The other day, Paul Morris, our "Wavy Rule" staff cartoonist, and I were questioning some punctuation: namely, the upside-down, Spanish-style question mark. After consulting friend and lettering expert Paul Shaw--who reports that "Bringhurst just calls it an inverted question mark, no special name"--we decided it was a real scandal that this character dare not speak its name. (Parenthetically, I wonder when the nameless mark will become a standard part of the computer keyboard, especially in America, where Spanish is rápidamente becoming our dual language?) So we decided to sponsor a contest. Paul wrote everything from here on--and, of course, drew the searing cartoon above.
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Coming Monday: A Contest! Emdashes Interns! And More.
Filed under: cartoons, comics, contests, interns
The holiday weekend sparkles in the near distance, but I'm really excited about Monday. Not only is it the day I go see Kabluey at Cinema Village, it's also the day I'll have the pleasure of introducing you to our Emdashes summer interns: Sarah Arkebauer, Taylor House, and Adam Shoemaker. They'll be contributing in many ways beginning next week, and you'll see right away why we selected them: They're remarkable people, and talented as can be.
Also on Monday, we have a contest. The first of more. In cartoon form. My heart is racing as I type. It is. Get ready to be tickled, and if you've misplaced your thinking cap, time to dust it off (there's no unmixing these metaphors)--your creative time has come.
Happy weekend, and while I'm away, enjoy further installments of Paul Morris's Emdashes comic "The Wavy Rule," which will continue daily over the holiday weekend. Even Gawker can't say that.
Update: PRINT is closing an issue, so I introduced the interns on Tuesday, and will run the contest shortly. Old media still wins!
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Benjamin Chambers on the "Best American Essays," Pt. 2
Filed under: Annie Dillard, Benjamin Chambers, Best American series, E.J. Kahn Jr., Geoffrey Wolff, Harold Brodkey, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, Veronica Geng
Take it away, Benjamin!
My next job was to tackle 1987, from the anthology edited by Annie Dillard: an easy list of only three essays. (One wonders if Dillard didn't care for the stuff The New Yorker did; or if she felt obliged to go against the grain, figuring that it was better to take notice of material in other, lesser known venues; or—possibly?—The New Yorker itself was having an off year? It's interesting that when Geoffrey Wolff edited the anthology the next year, he felt 10 NYer pieces were notable (though he didn’t select any for "best of" status). What's odd about that, though, is that he included (continued)
A Reader Writes: Why No Byline on the Raymond Carver Intro?
Filed under: Art Winslow, Dean Olsher, fiction, Gordon Lish, poetry, Raymond Carver
The decision to write anonymously here seems especially freighted, less a mere throwback to the Shawn years and having something more to do with the nature of Lish's initially invisible and essential influence.On the other hand, maybe everyone was just anxious to get out the door for the holiday, and the crucial line was dropped. As if that would ever happen. Here's the piece in question, and don't forget the nifty slide show and a very illuminating demonstration of the lishian pen, not to mention the
I wonder if Art Winslow, who is what I think about when I think about Lish (well, also those poems that Lish failed to accept for the Quarterly when I was an undergraduate, but I bear him no ill will; they were utterly [there's a joke for you Columbians] wrong for the magazine), will be weighing in on the latest Carver carve-up at the Huffington Post. Art? (continued)
Benjamin Chambers on the "Best American" Essays, Pt. 1
Filed under: Anthony Bailey, Berton Roueche, Calvin Trillin, Frances FitzGerald, Joan Didion, Vicki Hearne, William Pfaff
Benjamin Chambers, of the splendid literary website The King's English, has thus far proven to be the ideal reader of the Squib Report if not this entire blog. After I posted exhaustive lists of the Best American essays and short stories according to Houghton Mifflin (in which there are still gaps—by all means submit missing years if you have them!), he not only provided us with the data for two years in the essay list but also decided that he would read all of the listed essays. Benjamin: I admire your dedication! Judging from your industriousness, you'll have no trouble finishing off the list.
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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
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Learn more about us and our contributors.
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)
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