Brooklyn indie publisher Akashic Books is partnering with David Zirin, the Nation’s sports correspondent, to launch Edge of Sports Books, an imprint devoted to sports titles with a progressive political slant.
The new imprint is named after Zirin’s column in the weekly publication. Edge of Sports Books will debut with two titles in 2016: Chasing The Water Dragon: A Tale of Talent, Turbulence and Transformation by Anthony Ervin and Constantine Markides, and Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape by Jessica Luther. In Chasing the Water, Ervin, an Olympic swimmer who dropped out of competition in 2000, explores his return to the sport a decade later as a more competitive, and stronger, athlete. Luther’s book is a close examination of an ongoing problem in elite sports: sexual assault.
Zirin, in addition to being a columnist, is the author of a number of books, including Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down (New Press, 2013). He is a frequent guest on MSNBC, and hosts the Edge of Sports radio show on Sirius XM.
Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple says Zirin will direct the new imprint and acquire all titles. The time is right, Temple says, to launch a “progressive” imprint devoted to sports in American society, and Zirin is one of the few “lefty writers” covering sports.
Edge of Sports will publish titles, Zirin says, that show “the ways 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.”
The imprint does not have a set number of titles planned. Although the first list isn’t scheduled until 2016, Temple says he and Zirin are already “looking for topical books—things can pop up overnight in this category.”
