Fast Break to Line Break
Poets on the Art of Basketball
Will be published approx. on 1. February 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
234 pages
978-1-61186-035-1 (ISBN)
Description
If baseball is the sport of nostalgic prose, basketball's movement, myths, and culture are truly at home in verse. In this extraordinary collection of essays, poets meditate on what basketball means to them: how it has changed their perspective on the craft of poetry; how it informs their sense of language, the body, and human connectedness; how their love of the sport made a difference in the creation of their poems and in the lives they live beyond the margins. Walt Whitman saw the origins of poetry as communal, oral myth making. The same could be said of basketball, which is the beating heart of so many neighborhoods and communities in this country and around the world. On the court and on the page, this "poetry in motion" can be a force of change and inspiration, leaving devoted fans wonderstruck.
Reviews / Votes
Fast Break to Line Break is a vibrant reminder that we human beings take nothing quite so seriously as we do our games. What joy to hear these remarkable writers speak so passionately about a metal rim, an arcing ball, and the countless lessons learned on and off the court. Nothing but net, here. -Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic Desire The resplendent prose skirmishing in Fast Break to Line Break wrests verse from the mitts of baseball's ham-handed mutts and delivers poetry to another genre-basketball's articulated fingertips where the spin is spun into the english on the English. -Michael Martone, author of Four for a QuarterMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
East Lansing, MI
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
391 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61186-035-1 (9781611860351)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2012
1st Edition
Michigan State University Press
€33.29
Available for download
E-Book
02/2012
1st Edition
Michigan State University Press
€46.09
Available for download
Person
Todd Davis is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Least of These, and his poems have appeared in such journals and magazines as Poetry Daily, North American Review, The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, Arts & Letters, and The Iowa Review.
Content
The Game PREGAME Basketball, Poetry, and All Things Beautiful / Todd Davis and J. D. Scrimgeour FIRST QUARTER Hidden Talents Fail to Materialize / Jim Daniels
Basketball and Poetry: The Two Richies / Stephen Dunn
Two Things You Need Balls to Do: A Miscellany from a Former Professional Basketball Player Turned Poet / Natalie Diaz
The Simple Rhymes of Defense / Gary Fincke
Basketball and Poetry: Strange Bedfellows / Margaret Gibson and David McKain
Basketball and the Immigrant Faith / Patrick Rosal SECOND QUARTER Spinning in My Hands / Mary Linton
Against All Odds / Linda Nemec Foster
The Ball Goes in Clean / Todd Davis
Hard / Peter Sears
In Praise of Bad Boys and the Evolutionary Leap / Therese Becker
Why I Wrote the "Magic" Johnson Poem / Quincy Troupe HALFTIME The Art of the Cheer / Debra Marquart THIRD QUARTER Fast Break / William Heyen
Tipping Off / Lauren (Jentz) Jensen
Off the Rim / Adrian Matejka
Courting Risk: Thoughts on Basketball and Poetry / Patricia Clark
Basketball, Failure, and Amateur Pleasure / Jeff Gundy
My Two Obsessions: Basketball and Poetry / Marian Haddad FOURTH QUARTER "More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell": A Poet's Education in Southern Basketball / Bobby C. Rogers
Blessed / Ross Gay
It Was Easier to Say, "I'm a Basketball Player" Than It Is to Say, "I'm a Poet" / Jack Ridl
Reading Sebastian Matthews / James McKean
Going Exactly Where We Want to Go / Marjorie Maddox
Squeak from Shoes / Richard Newman OVERTIME Announcing My Retirement / J. D. Scrimgeour
Team Roster Acknowledgments
Basketball and Poetry: The Two Richies / Stephen Dunn
Two Things You Need Balls to Do: A Miscellany from a Former Professional Basketball Player Turned Poet / Natalie Diaz
The Simple Rhymes of Defense / Gary Fincke
Basketball and Poetry: Strange Bedfellows / Margaret Gibson and David McKain
Basketball and the Immigrant Faith / Patrick Rosal SECOND QUARTER Spinning in My Hands / Mary Linton
Against All Odds / Linda Nemec Foster
The Ball Goes in Clean / Todd Davis
Hard / Peter Sears
In Praise of Bad Boys and the Evolutionary Leap / Therese Becker
Why I Wrote the "Magic" Johnson Poem / Quincy Troupe HALFTIME The Art of the Cheer / Debra Marquart THIRD QUARTER Fast Break / William Heyen
Tipping Off / Lauren (Jentz) Jensen
Off the Rim / Adrian Matejka
Courting Risk: Thoughts on Basketball and Poetry / Patricia Clark
Basketball, Failure, and Amateur Pleasure / Jeff Gundy
My Two Obsessions: Basketball and Poetry / Marian Haddad FOURTH QUARTER "More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell": A Poet's Education in Southern Basketball / Bobby C. Rogers
Blessed / Ross Gay
It Was Easier to Say, "I'm a Basketball Player" Than It Is to Say, "I'm a Poet" / Jack Ridl
Reading Sebastian Matthews / James McKean
Going Exactly Where We Want to Go / Marjorie Maddox
Squeak from Shoes / Richard Newman OVERTIME Announcing My Retirement / J. D. Scrimgeour
Team Roster Acknowledgments