The Bafflermagazine, America’s leading voice of interesting and unexpected left-wing political criticism since 1988, has appointed Matthew Shen Goodman as its new editor in chief.

Shen Goodman comes to The Bafflerfrom Triple Canopy, where he served as senior editor for the online publication, and advanced its forward-thinking mission, which embraces digital works of art and literature, public conversations, exhibitions, and books to augment the traditional role of a magazine.

His fiction and nonfiction—which includes texts on film, literature, politics, and the visual arts—has appeared in print and online inThe Paris Review,n+1, Art in America,Frieze, and, of course, The Baffler, among other publications.

“To those in the New York literary community, and the visual art scene, Matthew needs no introduction,” BafflerPublisher Noah McCormack said. “I’m thrilled to have him sitting at the top of the diverse network of staffers and freelancers that together generate one of the most important left-wing publications in the English-speaking world.”

Shen Goodman’s previous contributions to The Baffler include long-form essays on Jay Caspian Kang’s The Loneliest Americans, Andrew Yang’s New York City mayoral campaign, and the contemporary state of China-U.S. geopolitics.

In his role as editor in chief, Shen Goodman will conceive of and execute the editorial program for all print and digital content at the magazine, including six yearly print issues and daily web posts that seek to elevate the online discourse. He is responsible for maintaining the publication’s unique editorial voice, while continuing its vital program of expansion, finding new voices to publish alongside mainstays like George Scialabba, Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Jessa Crispin, and Sarah Jaffe.

“Readers of The Bafflerhave a wide array of interests and a razor-sharp sensibility. They demand pieces that challenge them,” Goodman said. “Editing The Bafflerisn’t just an honor, it’s an opportunity to work with an all-star team of writers and editors, to help them produce essays and articles that will endure the scrutiny of a sophisticated audience, and the test of time.”

While Shen Goodman is best known for his periodical writing, he recently signed a two-book deal with Astra Publishing House. Lording, a polyphonic novel in the style of James Ellroy, will expands on a story originally published in The Paris Review and explore the ongoing, intertwined crises of housing, H.I.V., and addiction in America, following social workers and tenants of a short-staffed Brooklyn housing facility.

The second book, American Accomplice, blends reporting, criticism, and history in search of the roots of a radical and right-wing Asian American movement. It was shortlisted for a Creative Capital grant in 2022.

The Bafflerwas founded in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1988 by Thomas Frank and Keith White, under the tagline “The journal that blunts the cutting edge,” and another unofficial slogan: “Your lifestyle sucks.”

Since then the magazine moved its headquarters to Chicago and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has brought together writers, activists, poets, and musicians to interpret culture and politics against the grain. “The magazine pioneered a distinctive brand of analysis—hip to pop culture, but skeptical of its claims of political subversiveness—and inspired a later generation of upstart journals like n+1and Jacobin,” The New York Times stated in 2014, when The Baffler’s archives were digitized.