This morning The Awl reported that two editors had left the literary monthly, Harper’s Magazine. According to the story, associate editor Paul Ford and senior editor Jennifer Szalai had both departed.
Last month, we reported how Ford had hosted a Harper’s reading that included Heidi Julavits, Sam Lipsyte, and Colson Whitehead (follow the links for video). During the reading, Ford gave a brief speech about the magazine’s future.
Here’s an excerpt from The Awl‘s exit interview with Ford: “I had an opportunity to be an editor at Harper’s, to edit pieces for the magazine. It was something I expected to really want. I had wonderful editors to learn from. I did a little of it for print and a lot for the web. I wasn’t bad at it, even. Not great, but not bad. I could have been a respected editor instead of a huge nerd. But all the editing in the world can’t compare to building little websites and mangling text and writing things and messing around in spreadsheets and figuring out what’s wrong with comments.”