Author

Ben Yagoda

@byagoda

Ben Yagoda’s books include “About Town: ’The New Yorker’ and the World It Made;” “How to Not Write Bad;” and “The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism,” which he coedited with Kevin Kerrane. Among his current projects is the blog moviesinothermovies.com. He taught journalism at the University of Delaware for twenty-five years.

Early influencers in a writing life

Early influencers in a writing life

Journalist, nonfiction author and teacher Ben Yagoda returns to some of the passages that inspired his career and helped shape his voice

Foreshadow forward; echo back. How writers harness the power of the callback

Foreshadow forward; echo back. How writers harness the power of the callback

The art of the callback in comedy, film, literature and journalism: When repetition isn't redundancy, but theme and structure

The sense of an ending

The sense of an ending

Whether you spell them “ledes” or “leads,” opening lines get a lot of attention. And why wouldn’t they? Sitting at the keyboard, with all the tedious and sometimes annoying reporting…

"Why’s this so good?" No. 47: Calvin Trillin and classic Edna Buchanan

Where is Edna Buchanan when we need her? Admittedly, the lede on this recent Associated Press story wasn’t half bad:MIAMI — A witness says a naked man chewing on the face of…

Memoir's truthy obligations: a handy how-to guide

Memoir's truthy obligations: a handy how-to guide

How true does a memoir have to be? That question has been the basis of an ongoing debate kicked off by the revelation, five years ago, that much of James…