By: Meghan Hall
David Zirin and Akashic Books recently collaborated to create Edge of Sports Books. This novel imprint is dedicated to sports titles with a progressive political slant. David Zirin, a sport’s writer for The Nation’s and novelist, was named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World.”[1] In addition, he hosts the Edge of Sports radio Show on Sirius XM and is a repeated guest on MSNBC. According to Poets & Writers, Inc., “Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers.”[2]
According to Johnny Temple, a publisher at Akashic Books, Zirin will acquire all the titles and direct Edge of Sports Books. The imprint will launch in 2016 with two titles: Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape by Jessica Luther and Chasing The Water Dragon: A Tale of Talent, Turbulence and Transformation by Anthony Ervin and Constantine Markides. Luther's book examines sexual assault, which is a continuing issue in elite sports. Ervin’s book details his return to competitive swimming after he dropped out of the sport more than a decade ago.
Although the imprint does not have a set number of titles planned at this time, Zirin is clear on what type of titles Edge of Sports will publish. He stated their titles will show “the ways where sports and politics illuminate one another, to clarify and expand necessary discussions in the sports world as well as in the real world it inhabits.”
Read more at Publishers Weekly.
[1] See http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html.
[2] See http://www.pw.org/content/akashic_books.
Photo courtesy of Publishers Weekly.
David Zirin and Akashic Books recently collaborated to create Edge of Sports Books. This novel imprint is dedicated to sports titles with a progressive political slant. David Zirin, a sport’s writer for The Nation’s and novelist, was named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World.”[1] In addition, he hosts the Edge of Sports radio Show on Sirius XM and is a repeated guest on MSNBC. According to Poets & Writers, Inc., “Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers.”[2]
According to Johnny Temple, a publisher at Akashic Books, Zirin will acquire all the titles and direct Edge of Sports Books. The imprint will launch in 2016 with two titles: Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape by Jessica Luther and Chasing The Water Dragon: A Tale of Talent, Turbulence and Transformation by Anthony Ervin and Constantine Markides. Luther's book examines sexual assault, which is a continuing issue in elite sports. Ervin’s book details his return to competitive swimming after he dropped out of the sport more than a decade ago.
Although the imprint does not have a set number of titles planned at this time, Zirin is clear on what type of titles Edge of Sports will publish. He stated their titles will show “the ways where sports and politics illuminate one another, to clarify and expand necessary discussions in the sports world as well as in the real world it inhabits.”
Read more at Publishers Weekly.
[1] See http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html.
[2] See http://www.pw.org/content/akashic_books.
Photo courtesy of Publishers Weekly.