n+1 Seven Years Later: A Narrative In Progress
Earlier in the day, I had visited the n+1 offices in DUMBO and spent some time talking with Blumenkranz, associate editor Dayna Tortorici, and business manager Ian Epstein. The office was in the middle of a big renovation. They had just torn down an interior wall, doubling the space and coating everything in a layer of plaster. Cartons of beer were stacked against a wall, waiting for the party that would follow Roth’s reading later that night. A sign saying cool fraud bro was propped up on Tortorici’s desk and the air conditioner was off, which made the space hot, but not uncomfortable.
Perhaps it was the dust from the renovations, I started coughing almost immediately in that awful way that only happens when you don’t want to be making noise, that awful way that only big gulps of cold water will cure. Tortorici got me water before I could even ask for it.
Blumenkranz, Tortorici, and Epstein were all interns at the magazine before moving up to become full-time staff. They are, in many ways, the new identity of n+1 and represent how the brand has managed to evolve while maintaining its original mission. Blumenkranz was an intern in 2005, when the Times article first brought so much attention to the magazine and has been a large part of its development. She told me that “one thing that I think the founding editors have really done well is that they really responded very carefully and thoughtfully to the criticism they received and also wanted to engage younger generations of editors and have been very open to letting the magazine grow and become a slightly broader endeavor. We all think the magazine has all these sorts of micro-generations…but I think that there’s a guiding spirit that has stayed the same.”