The George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism
Founded in 1984 with the help of legendary magazine and book publisher George T. Delacorte, the Delacorte Center serves as the hub of the Journalism School's longform and narrative endeavors.
Every year through the Delacorte Lecture series it brings in editors, writers, publishers, and other leaders from the world of magazines (broadly defined) to talk about their craft and the future of the industry. Recent guests have included David Remnick of The New Yorker, Elena Kostyuchenko of Novaya Gazeta, Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic, Susan Chira of the Marshall Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times Magazine, and Bhaskar Sunkara of Jacobin.
The Center is supported by the George Delacorte Fund at the New York Community Trust and directed by Keith Gessen, George T. Delacorte Assistant Professor of Magazine Journalism.
About George T. Delacorte
George T. Delacorte, Columbia College class of 1913, was the founder of Dell Publishing, a major magazine publisher of the 1920s and 30s, with best-selling magazines like I Confess and Ballyhoo (which came wrapped in cellophane). In the 1940s, Dell became a key driver of the paperback revolution in book publishing. The company published Kurt Vonnegut, Danielle Steel, and Robert B. Parker, among others.
Later on, George T. Delacorte became one of New York's most beloved and inventive philanthropists and one of Columbia's most devoted alumni. He generously enabled the University to create the Delacorte Professorship in the Humanities and to enhance the campus physically. In 1984, he founded the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism and created the Delacorte Professorship in Magazine Journalism. Columbia recognized his devotion to the University by awarding him an honorary doctorate in 1982.
About Keith Gessen, Director
Keith Gessen is a founding editor of the literary magazine n+1 and a contributing writer to The New Yorker. He has written about Russian politics, history, and literature for numerous publications, translated Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and Kirill Medvedev into English, and is the author of three books: All the Sad Young Literary Men; A Terrible Country; and Raising Raffi. He can be reached at [email protected].