- trim: documentation ( source)
- preg_replace: documentation ( source)
<?php
$_try_author = 'author@democracynow.org (author-two)';
$_try_author = trim(preg_replace('#[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,6}#i', '', $_try_author));
$_try_author = trim(preg_replace('#[<()>\[\]._%+-]#',' ',$_try_author));
echo $_try_author;