I’m the author, coauthor or editor of fourteen books, most recently an edition of O. Henry’s short stories for the Library of America. I’m currently working a biographical novel about O. Henry’s years in New York, 1902-1910. I’ve been awarded Guggenheim and MacDowell Fellowships to pursue this project. I’m also working on a book about irony. No joke.
I’ve written about language, writing and many other topics for Slate.com, the New York Times Book Review and Magazine, The American Scholar, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and publications that start with every letter of the alphabet except X and Z. Between 2011 and 2018, I contributed roughly one post a week to Lingua Franca, a Chronicle of Higher Education blog about language and writing. You can find links to some of my posts to here. My personal blogs are Not One-Off Britishisms and Movies in Other Movies.
I’m a native of New Rochelle, New York; a graduate of Yale; and a resident of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. In 2018, I retired after twenty-five years teaching writing and journalism at the University of Delaware. Before that, I worked as a film critic for the Philadelphia Daily News and an editor for Philadelphia and other magazines. I’m a member of the Society of American Historians, The Authors Guild, and the National Book Critics Circle.
I currently consult, edit, and work with writers. Contact me at byagoda@udel.edu.
Ben Yagoda's blog 