Yahdon Israel
Yahdon Israel is an American book and magazine editor.[1][2][3] He is a senior editor at Simon & Schuster and a former editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Magazine. He hosts the Brooklyn-based book club Literary Swag and has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle.[4][5][6][7]
Career
Israel was born to a religious Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.[6] As a graduate of The New School, Israel would regularly publish photographs of book readers on his Instagram account. This led to the creation of what he called the Literary Swag movement, which he described as an "intersection of fashion and literature", as well as a monthly book club of the same name.[3][4] After graduating, he worked as an instructor at CUNY's master of fine arts program and at the New York City College.[6][4]
He eventually became the editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Magazine[2] and later worked as a senior editor of Simon & Schuster, beginning in March 2021.[6] He has served at the selection committee of the Aspen Words Literary Prize.[4]
References
- ^ "Book editor creates empathic book club for straight men - GOOD". www.good.is. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ a b Correal, Annie (2017-10-27). "How Yahdon Israel, of #LiterarySwag, Spends His Sundays". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ a b Smith, Karlton (2017-02-14). "#NBCBLK28: #LiterarySwag: Yahdon Israel found the intersection of fashion and lit". NBC News. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ a b c d Stewart, Sophia. "Yahdon Israel Pulls Back the Curtain on Publishing". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ Bernstein, Joseph (2025-06-25). "Why Did the Novel-Reading Man Disappear?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ a b c d Goodman, Elyssa. "Meet the Editor Upending the Traditional Publishing World". InsideHook. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
- ^ "#NBCBLK28: #LiterarySwag: Yahdon Israel found the intersection of fashion and lit". NBC News. 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2025-07-02.