ABOUT Edge of Sports
an Imprint of Akashic Books

 

Chasing Water is the debut title in Dave Zirin’s Edge of Sports imprint. Addressing issues across many different sports at both the professional and nonprofessional/collegiate level, Zirin brings to the table select stories of athletes’ journeys, what they are facing, and how they evolve.

A Note from Dave Zirin:

One of the great lies endlessly repeated is that sports and politics don't mix. This is not only absurd historically—think Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King—but it is revealed as ridiculous on nearly a daily basis. The idea that stories emanating from the sports world can be neatly contained in your newspaper’s sports section is about as old-fashioned as the newspaper itself.

Some of the most analyzed political issues of our time are often debated and processed through the lens of sports. The discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement is also a discussion about the ways in which star athletes have supported and amplified that movement. The incredible advances in LGBT rights over the last several years are also stories about athletes like Michael Sam, Jason Collins, and soccer star Megan Rapinoe. The emerging consciousness about sexual assault on campuses is intertwined with big media stories about the ways that athletic departments have attempted to cover up alleged rapes involving star athletes. Jock culture more than ever is a political culture.

The Edge of Sports imprint at Akashic Books is an effort to provide an even deeper articulation about the daily collision between sports and politics, giving cutting-edge writers the opportunity to fully explore their areas of expertise in book form. We think that the creation of such an imprint, at the risk of cliché, is a game-changer: something that will not only reflect the debates and discussions raging in the sports world, but in fact shape them. —Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin is the sports editor for the Nation magazine. He is host of Sirius XM Radio’s popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He also cohosts the radio program The Collision: Sports and Politics, alongside Etan Thomas. Zirin is the the author of eight books on the politics of sports, most recently Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics & the Fight for Democracy (Haymarket Books). He is the recipient of the 2015 New York Press award for sportswriting.

COMING SOON FROM EDGE OF SPORTS

Fair Play, by Cyd Zeigler

“This important and accessible book about the evolving treatment of LGBTQ athletes in organized sports should be required reading for anyone involved in the playing, coaching, and administration of organized sports.” —Publishers Weekly

“Long regarded as a leading voice in the space, Zeigler has written the definitive book on LGBT issues in sports. By turns informative, insightful, poignant, and (rightly) impatient, Zeigler shows how LGBT attitudes in sports mirror the broader cultural shift—and how sometimes they don’t.” —Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated

“Cyd Zeigler is right: courage is contagious. Sometimes all it takes is knowing others have come before and prevailed to spark a personal revelation and create another ally. More and more coaches, athletes, and fans are ready to embrace their LGBT teammates, even if—truth be told—there is still a lot of work to be done to change engrained mindsets and behaviors within sports at every level.” —John E. Amaechi, former NBA player

“Fair Play is an essential read and one that is desperately needed to help break down stereotypes and myths with LGBT athletes and the community at large. There is still so much work to be done, but Zeigler and many of the brave athletes he chronicles—gay and straight—are literally helping to save lives.” —Amy K. Nelson, award-winning sports journalist

“Cyd Zeigler has to be listed among the great pioneers for making it possible for LGBT Americans to come out in the sporting world. His writing is filled with passion, insights, and a deep belief in equality. Fair Play fills a void of a critical part of LGBT history and we are fortunate that Zeigler has told it with such power and grace.” —David Mixner, author of Brave Journeys: Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage

When Cyd Zeigler started writing about LGBT sports issues in 1999, no one wanted to talk about them. Today, this is a central conversation in American society that reverberates throughout the sports world and beyond. As a key figure in the LGBT sports movement, Zeigler tells the story of how sports have transformed for LGBT athletes, diving into key moments and issues that have shaped sports for LGBT people today. In Fair Play, Zeigler shares intimate behind-the-scenes details about various athletes and stories—including NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, and NFL hopeful Michael Sam, among others—along with contextual insights about elite sports, including the overhyped “distraction” myth surrounding gay athletes. Always the forward-thinker, Zeigler maps out the necessary steps to complete sports’ transformation and fully open athletics to LGBT people.

CYD ZEIGLER is one of the world’s foremost experts on LGBT issues in sports. He and his Outsports cofounder Jim Buzinski have written more coming-out stories of LGBT people—in sports or any other arena—than any journalists in America. These stories have included former NBA player John Amaechi, former NFL prospect Wade Davis, NFL hopeful Michael Sam, and NCAA basketball player Derrick Gordon, in addition to countless other athletes and coaches in high school, college, and pro sports. Zeigler also cofounded the Sports Equality Foundation, which helps fund the cycle of LGBT people coming out and being out in sports. He appears regularly on ESPN, and in the New York Times and USA Today, and provides expertise on LGBT sports issues for countless other media outlets including Sports Illustrated, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and NPR. He is a former high school athlete, still holding school track-and-field records twenty-five years later. A graduate of Stanford University, Zeigler lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two cats.

Fair Play is will be available in paperback in June 2016 from our website and in bookstores everywhere. The e-book edition will be available wherever e-books are sold.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape by Jessica Luther

Football teams create playbooks, in which they draw up the plays they will use on the field. If all goes well, the large amount of work that goes into a single play suddenly looks like a natural flow of bodies moving in unison that results in the movement of the ball down the field or the successful stop of the other team’s offense. Playbooks are how teams work and why they win.

This book is about a different kind of playbook. Over the last three years, sexual assault on college campuses has been a hot topic as people are wondering aloud and often about it, especially when it involves star football players. Unsportsmanlike Conduct explores that playbook: the one coaches, teams, universities, police, communities, the media, and fans seem to follow whenever a college football player is accused of sexual assault. It’s a deep dive into how different institutions—the NCAA, athletic departments, universities, the media—run the same plays over and over again when these stories break. If everyone runs their plays well, scrutiny dies down quickly, no institution ever has to change how it operates, and the evaporation of these cases into nothingness looks natural. In short, this playbook is why nothing ever changes.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct unpacks this societal playbook piece by piece, and not only advocates that we destroy the old plays, but also suggests we replace them with ones that will force us to finally do something about this issue.

Jessica Luther is an independent writer and investigative journalist living in Austin, Texas. Her work on sports and culture has appeared in the Texas Observer and the Austin Chronicle, and at Sports Illustrated, Texas Monthly, Vice Sports, Guardian Sport, and Bleacher Report. Luther’s work gained national attention in August 2015 when writing for Texas Monthly; she and Dan Solomon broke open the story about a Baylor football player on trial for sexual assault, a case known by only a few in the community and not reported in the media for nearly two years.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct will be available in September 2016 in paperback from our website and in bookstores everywhere. The e-book edition will be available wherever e-books are sold.