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