Bodies Built for Game

Natalie Diaz is an associate professor of English and the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. She is the author of When My Brother Was an Aztec and of the forthcoming book Post Colonial Love Poem. In 2018 she received a MacArthur Fellowship. Hannah Ensor is the assistant director of the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Love Dream with Television.

Bodies Built for Game, introduction essay -Natalie Diaz
In Defense of Allen Iverson, poem -Hanif Abdurraqib
Bolting into Throat, poem -Patricia Smith
last summer of innocence, poem -Danez Smith
American Pharoah, poem -Ada Limón
Takes Enemy, essay -Shann Ray
Professional Wrestling Holds, poem -Ashaki Jackson
He takes me, poem -Paul Tran
The Hit Man, poem -Stacey Waite
Psych Ward Visitation Hour, poem -b. william bearhart
The Wars, novel excerpt -Louise Erdrich
After Simone Manuel's Olympic Victory in the Women's 100m Freestyle, poem -Lauren Espinoza
In the outfield, daydreaming, poem -francine j. harris
The Meaning of Serena Williams: On tennis and black excellence, essay -Claudia Rankine
Serena Williams Walks, poem -Kwame Dawes
Boxing Out, poem -Adrian Matejka
Summertime, poem -Joel Salcido
Aaron Hernandez is my brother, poem -Randall J Tyrone
The Church of Michael Jordan, poem -Jeffrey McDaniel
Built For It, poem -Lisa Olstein
Federer as Irreligious Experience, essay -Porochista Khakpour
prayer when knees give, poem -Nate Marshall
Days of '95 II, poem -Shane Lake
Baseball, poem -Izzy Wasserstein
To Prevent Hypothermia, poem -Fatimah Asghar
Give and Go, essay -Toni Jensen
Perfect Form, poem -Kamilah Aisha Moon
Black Boxers: A Brief History, poem -Benjamin Krusling
The Cock Fight Place, poem -Alberto Ríos
A Note on Process, essay -Meghan O'Rourke
How Are You Feeling, poem -Ana Božičević
The Wrestler, poem -Kazim Ali
War Training: An Athletics, poem -Nomi Stone
A Boy & His Mother Play Dead at Dawn, poem -Michael Wasson
As If We Were Called, essay -Reginald Dwayne Betts
Run, poem -Gary Jackson
From Heaven, My Father Sends His Regrets, poem -Cornelius Eady
Russian Sport, poem -Vera Pavlova, translated by Ilya Kaminsky and Valzhyna Mort
Feel for the Water, essay -Christian Campbell
I reckon, a latitude, poem -Asiya Wadud
A Perfect Game, poem -Yesenia Montilla
Dennis, poem -Kaveh Akbar
At Eighty-Two My Father Is Learning to Walk Again, poem -Esther Lin
Clank, novel excerpt -Tomás Q. Morin
Liquid, poem -Aaron Smith
Losing the 440-Yard Dash, poem -Afaa M. Weaver
Sports Analogy, poem -David Tomas Martinez
Why to Run Racks, essay -Lisa Fay Coutley
El Barril, poem -James Thomas Stevens
Who Got This Far, poem -Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Project Artifacts: Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, poem -Maya Washington
My Mother Says I'm A Warrior, essay -Claudia D. Hernandez
Alone in the Schoolyard at Dusk, poem -Dorianne Laux
why i can't play basketball anymore, poem -Richard Vargas
The Condition of Being a Sports Fan, essay -Sue Hyon Bae
Take Me Out, poem -Iliana Rocha
Parking Lot Poem With Fernando Valenzuela, poem -Matthew Lippman
Strike Indicator, poem -Pamela Hart
Minor League Legend, poem -Matthew Olzmann
Longing to the Invisible: An Ars Poetica, essay -Traci Brimhall
High School Yoga, poem -Kat Page
Southpaw Skin the Gloves, poem -Alicia Mountain
Playbook, poem -Hannah Oberman-Breindel
Games, poem -L. Lamar Wilson
Mudita World Peace, essay -Hannah Ensor
At the gym, moments after I failed a squat attempt that would have been easy pre-sitting-induced pinched nerve, poem -Candace Williams
Inside the City Williams, poem -Norman Dubie
Diana Nyad as J.M.W Turner, poem -BK Fischer
game recognizes game, poem -t'ai freedom ford
Off Sides, essay -Susan Briante
The Chain, poem -Elyse Fenton
Young Woman Wrestler, poem -Tria Blu Wakpa
Self-portrait in Sleep, poem -Dean Rader
Infield Contrapuntal, poem -Meg Day
Shots Missed, poem -Celeste Adame
Sports History, poem -Brett Fletcher Lauer
The Yo-Yo Heir's Lament, poem -Eugene Gloria
Stadium Mocs, poem -Chip Livingston
Bad Love Affair, poem -Joseph Millar
Ode To The Dream Shake, poem -Ben Purkert
Catch, poem -Trevino Brings Plenty
The Sum of Our Doing, essay -Holly M. Wendt
Who Holds The Stag's Head Gets to Speak, poem -Gabrielle Calvacoressi
Polaroid: Links, poem -Stacey Lynn Brown
Of Competition or ""And the sheeted dead squeak and gibber in the Roman streets"", poem -Brendan Constantine
Darkening the Belt, poem -Anders Carlson-Wee from the first half of FAREWELL TO SOCCER Ninety Minute-Long Stories, fiction -Valerio Magrelli translated from the Italian by Will Schutt
¡Sangre! ¡Sangre! ¡Sangre!, poem -Nandi Comer
This is Not an Essay about Wresting, or If David Markson Loved the WWF Like I Did When I Was 12, essay -John Findura
The Curtain, poem -Ryan Black
Ladies' Arm Wrestling Match at the Blue Moon Diner, poem -Jenny Johnson
Scorekeep, fiction -Tommy Orange
Ghazal at the End of Hogpen Road, poem -J. Scott Brownlee
Can We Have Our Ball Back?, poem -Matthew Dickman
untitled, poem -Kevin Goodan
""Productive Antagonisms: An Interview with boxer and poet Christina Olivares"", interview -Saretta Morgan interviewing Christina Olivares
The Rookie, poem -January Gill O'Neil
Cross Country, poem -Roger Reeves
Another Kind of Faith, essay -Joaquín Zihuatanejo
Why Pam Hates Sprite and Sunflower Seeds, poem -Alison Rollins
The Tribes, poem -Chee Brossy
All the Flesh, Singing, poem -Shivanee Ramlochen
Between Practice, essay -Terrance Hayes
List of Contributors