Fighters & Writers

by John G. Rodwan, Jr.

Overview

Fighters & Writers is neither a traditional sports book nor a conventional collection of literary essays. The title essay surveys a selection of the mammoth body of literature involving boxing in addition to writing on closely related topics such as confidence games. "The Ali Act" considers writers' undiminished interest in one extraordinary boxer. "The Fighting Life" looks at two prominent writers' use of boxing in their fiction. "A First-Class Sport" assesses boxing's frequently overlooked positive aspects by examining the memoirs and autobiographies of several boxing enthusiasts, including a former heavyweight champion, a well-known trainer and television analyst, and prominent public figures including a former president and a U.S. senator. Other pieces in the collection explore how boxing inserts itself in writers' imaginations even when they write about other subjects. Essays on diverse topics such as book dedications, Orwell's Spanish Civil War memories, digressions, tattoos and losing weight reveal the close, if not always recognized, connections between fighters and writers.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012494443
Publisher:	Mongrel Empire Press
Publication date:	05/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

John G. Rodwan, Jr.’s writing has been published by The American Interest, The Mailer Review, Blood and Thunder, Fight News, Spot Literary Magazine, Open Letters Monthly, The Oregonian, Free Inquiry, The Humanist and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, he earned a master’s degree in English from Wayne State University. He has lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and Brooklyn, New York, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

There's something special about boxing stories, Portland The greater part of Rodwan's essay collection "Fighters and Writers" takes a hard look at boxers (like Ali, Mike Tyson and Joe Louis) and the authors (like Mailer, Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates) who find them fascinating. "The exchanges between both literary and athletic combatants," Rodwan writes, "can be endlessly entertaining." A frequent contributor to The Oregonian, Rodwan is a former correspondent for Fight News.

Kate Schneider