The Best American Sports Writing was a yearly anthology of magazine articles on the subject of sports published in the United States. It started in 1991 as part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin and ceased publication in 2020. It was preceded by the Best American Sports Stories (1945–1991) and succeeded by The Year’s Best Sports Writing (2021–present), published by Triumph Books.
Articles were chosen using the same procedure as other titles in the Best American Series; the series editor chose about 70–100 article candidates, from which the guest editor picked 25 or so for publication; many, but not all of the remaining runner-up articles were listed in the appendix. The series has been edited since its inception by Glenn Stout.
Traditionally loaded with long-form feature stories and an occasional column, the annual book is considered a must-read by many sports writers, though the reach of its influence is debatable. Authors who have appeared in the series five or more times in its history are: Gary Smith (13 times), Wright Thompson (12), Steve Friedman (10), S.L. Price (nine), Charles P. Pierce (nine), William Nack (seven), Rick Reilly (seven), Roger Angell (seven), Pat Jordan (seven), Rick Telander (seven), Linda Robertson (six), Paul Solotaroff (six), Chris Jones (six), Chris Ballard (six), Mark Kram Jr. (five), Bill Plaschke (five), Peter Richmond (five) and Steve Rushin (five).
It also includes award-winning writers whose genre is not exclusively sports writing, such as Jeanne Marie Laskas whose 2008 piece "G-L-O-R-Y!" offered a rare look at professional cheerleaders. The series includes the Best American Sports Writing of the Century, published in 2000. The guest editor for that book was David Halberstam, who also served as the guest editor for the first edition of the series, in 1991.
Selected from the cream of the sports journalism crop, nearly every guest editor has had at least one story published in a previous or later edition of the book. The only exceptions are John Feinstein, and Dick Schaap (whose work appeared twice in the Best American Sports Writing of the Century anthology). [1] [2]
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Michael Diamond Resnick was an American science fiction writer and editor. He won five Hugo awards and a Nebula award, and was the guest of honor at Chicon 7. He was the executive editor of the defunct magazine Jim Baen's Universe, and the creator and editor of Galaxy's Edge magazine.
The Best American Series is a series of anthologies that is published annually by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Each title within the series covers a specific genre such as short stories or mysteries. The works for each year's edition are selected from those published elsewhere during the previous year.
Ploughshares is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in Boston. Ploughshares publishes issues four times a year, two of which are guest-edited by a prominent writer who explores personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Guest editors have been the recipients of Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, National Book Awards, MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, and numerous other honors. Ploughshares also publishes longform stories and essays, known as Ploughshares Solos, all of which are edited by the editor-in-chief, Ladette Randolph, and a literary blog, launched in 2009, which publishes critical and personal essays, interviews, and book reviews.
Cecilia Tan is an American writer, editor, sexuality activist, and founder and manager of Circlet Press, which specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre; its publications often feature BDSM themes. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1] She also writes about baseball, but is not to be confused with a writer of the same name who specializes in Asian cookbooks.
Richard Thomas Chizmar is an American writer, the publisher and editor of Cemetery Dance magazine, and the owner of Cemetery Dance Publications. He also edits anthologies, produces films, writes screenplays, and teaches writing.
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated, where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival Chicago Tribune had.
Matthew Frederick Christopher was an American writer of children's books. He wrote more than 100 novels and 300 short stories, mainly featuring sports. After Christopher's death, his family oversaw production of books under Christopher's name created by various writers and illustrators, treating the name as a trademark.
Paul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specializes in science fiction and fantasy.
Lou Aronica is an American editor and publisher, primarily of science fiction. He co-edited the Full Spectrum anthologies with Shawna McCarthy. As a publisher he began at Bantam Books and formed their Bantam Spectra science fiction and fantasy label. Later he moved on to Avon and helped create their Avon-Eos science fiction and fantasy label.
Robert Maxwell Hood is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers, although his work frequently crosses genre boundaries into science fiction, fantasy and crime.
Rick Wolff was an American book editor, author, college coach, broadcaster, and onetime professional baseball player. He was the son of Hall of Fame Sportscaster Bob Wolff. He was Senior Executive Editor at Large with Kevin Anderson and Associates and hosted "The Sports Edge" on WFAN Sports Radio.
Epoch is a triannual American literary magazine founded in 1947 and published by Cornell University. It has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted in The Best American Short Stories series and poems later included in The Best American Poetry series. It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, graphic art, and sometimes cartoons and screenplays, but no literary criticism or book reviews.
Van Allen Plexico is an American professor of Political Science and History, a Sports and Pop Culture podcast host and producer, and a science fiction and fantasy author. He is generally considered one of the leading figures in the New Pulp movement.
Lou Anders is a US-based author, known for the Thrones & Bones series of middle grade fantasy novels. Anders is a Hugo Award-winning editor, a Chesley Award-winning art director, a journalist, a children's author, and a tabletop roleplaying game designer. In 2001, Anders launched Lazy Wolf Studios to publish tabletop roleplaying game material set in the world of his novels.
David Stout was a journalist and author of mystery novels, two of which have been turned into TV movies, and of non-fiction about violent crime. For his first novel, Carolina Skeletons, he won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.
Mitch Berman is an American fiction writer known for his imaginative range, exploration of characters beyond the margins of society, lush prose style and dark humor.
Jason Vincent Brock is an American author, artist, editor and filmmaker.
Kathleen Elizabeth Fagan is an American sports reporter and commentator who previously was employed by ESPN. Before joining the ESPN staff, she worked as the Philadelphia Inquirer's beat writer for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers.
Michael Sokolove is an American journalist and author. He has worked for The New York Times Magazine since 2001. His books include Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose, about Pete Rose and his banishment from baseball, and The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw, about Darryl Strawberry's high school baseball team.