| 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 mater | Yale 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 (1909â1990), 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 (nÊe Lewis), 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.
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.
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
- McFadden, Robert D. (5 September 1975). "School Talks Mediator". The New York Times.
- Fowler, Glenn (15 November 1990). "Louis Yagoda, 81, Ex-Arbitrator; Assisted in Major Labor Disputes". The New York Times.
- "People". Department of English. University of Delaware. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- Ben Yagoda blog posts at The New York Times
External links
- Official website
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Ben Yagoda on Charlie Rose
- Ben Yagoda at IMDb
- Ben Yagoda papers, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.
- Ben Yagoda, "My Life as a Hack. It was glorious. Now it's over" at Slate, August 26, 2005, announcing retirement from freelance journalism
- 1954 births
- Living people
- Educators from New York City
- University of Delaware faculty
- Writers from New Rochelle, New York
- Writers of books about writing fiction
- Yale College alumni
- American male non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- Writers from New York City