Ben Yagoda

Ben Yagoda
Yagoda speaking at the Third Coast Audio Festival, 21 October 2005
Born (1954-02-22) February 22, 1954 (age 70)
New York City, U.S.
Alma materYale University;
University of Pennsylvania
Notable credit(s)The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, Rolling Stone

Ben Yagoda (born February 22, 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.

Early life and education

Born in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909–1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with the New York State Mediation Board, visiting lecturer at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a former organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and Harriet (née Lewis),[1][2] he grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He entered Yale University to study English in 1971 and graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of arts. He later earned an M.A. in American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1991.[3]

Career

He became a freelance journalist for publications such as The New Leader, The New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone. He has published a number of books including About Town: The New Yorker and the World it Made.

Besides his work as a journalism and English professor at the University of Delaware, Yagoda also writes occasionally for a New York Times blog about the English language.[4]

He currently has a monthly podcast called The Lives They're Living with Ben Yagoda.

Personal life

Yagoda resides in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with his wife. They have two daughters.

Selected bibliography

  • Will Rogers: A Biography (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, ISBN 0-394-58512-7)
  • The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism (Scribner, 1997, ISBN 0-684-83041-8), co-edited with Kevin Kerrane
  • About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made (Scribner, 2000, ISBN 0-684-81605-9)
  • The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing (HarperResource, 2004, ISBN 0-066-21417-3)
  • When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse (Broadway Books, 2007, ISBN 0-767-92077-5)
  • Memoir: A History (Riverhead Books, 2008, ISBN 1-594-48886-X)
  • How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and How to Avoid Them (Riverhead Books, 2013, ISBN 1-594-48848-7)
  • The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song (Riverhead Books, 2015, ISBN 1-594-48849-5)

Notes

  1. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (5 September 1975). "School Talks Mediator". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Fowler, Glenn (15 November 1990). "Louis Yagoda, 81, Ex-Arbitrator; Assisted in Major Labor Disputes". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "People". Department of English. University of Delaware. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  4. ^ Ben Yagoda blog posts at The New York Times