Hyphen

The hyphen (‐) is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes (‒, –, —, ―), which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign (−), which is also longer in some contexts.

As an orthographic concept, the hyphen is a single entity. In terms of character encoding and display, that entity is represented by any of several characters and glyphs (including hard hyphens, soft or optional hyphens, and nonbreaking hyphens), depending on the context of use (discussed below).

Although, as mentioned above, hyphens are not to be confused with en dashes and minus signs, there are some overlaps in usage (in which either a hyphen or an en dash may be acceptable, depending on user preference; discussed below) and in character encoding (which often uses the same character, called a "hyphen-minus", to represent both the hyphen and minus sign entities; discussed below).

Hyphen (magazine)

Hyphen is an American magazine, produced three times a year by a volunteer staff; it is a not-for-profit organization. It was founded in 2002 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area journalists, activists, and artists including Melissa Hung, a former reporter for the Houston Press and East Bay Express; Claire Light, former program manager for Kearny Street Workshop; Yuki Tessitore, of Mother Jones; Mia Nakano, photojournalist, and filmmaker Jennifer Huang. Stefanie Liang, a graphic designer from Red Herring magazine joined the staff as artistic director before the publication of the first issue. Its advisory board includes notable Asian American journalists such as Helen Zia and Nguyen Qui Duc, the host of Pacific Time. The first issue was released in June 2003.Hyphen is one of several Asian American media ventures created in the wake of A Magazine's demise.

Shortly after its release, the publication was sharply criticized by AsianWeek columnist Emil Guillermo who theorized that Hyphen's young editors were arrogant, ashamed of their Asian heritage, and disrespectful of existing ethnic media in his weekly column. He later said that he had not actually read the magazine.

Hyphen (fanzine)

Hyphen was an Irish science fiction fanzine published from 1952-1965 by Walt Willis in collaboration with James White, Bob Shaw and various others (Chuck Harris, Vincent Clarke, Arthur Thomson, Ian McAuley and Madeleine Willis). Over that period, they published 36 issues (one including a separate 'Literary Supplement'). In addition, a 37th issue was created by the Willises in 1987 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Irish science fiction fandom. Hyphen was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1957 and 1959; and for the 1954 Retro Hugo (In 1958 editor Willis was awarded 1958 Hugo Award as 'Outstanding Actifan' [active fan], which replaced the Best Fanzine category that year.)

Hyphen was considered one of the pivotal fanzines of its era for its humour and wit contributed by writers such as Willis and illustrators such as Thomson (aka 'ATom').Science fiction fan, critic and author Damon Knight wrote in a letter of comment on issue #10: The reason Hyphen is so good, I take it, apart from the accidental assemblage of half a dozen geniuses in Britain, and the reason so many serious and constructive fanzines are so ghastly dull, is that the former is an original contribution, and the latter are self-consciously second-hand. I would like you to ponder this thought though, if it hasn't already occurred to you: it's exactly the fun-loving fanzines like Hyphen, Bradbury's Futuria Fantasia, and Snide (not a plug—the mag's 2nd and final issue was published 14 years ago) which have profoundly influenced science fiction."