The Sportswriter's Life Magnificent Irrelevance

This is Episode 5 of a 12-part series of interviews with the creators and editors of sports writing.

My name is Shane Breslin, and I first came across the guest on this episode in the last few days of February 2020. 

You may recall that time vividly. It was a time when a frightening new illness was sweeping the world, when the thoughts of an entire city being placed under strict lockdown — as Wuhan in China was at that time — was alien to most of us, and when coronavirus cases were skyrocketing in Europe and the United States and everywhere else. 

During those few days, one of the things that took my mind away from the virus, for a while at least, was a stunning piece of writing titled "The Legacy of Mambacita", about Gianna "Gigi" Bryant, the daughter of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, who died with her father in that helicopter crash tragedy in January 2020.

I’m delighted to welcome Mirin Fader, the author of that piece, and a fast-rising star of the longform sportswriting business, to Episode 5 of this series, The Sportswriter’s Life.

This 12-part podcast is brought to you by Magnificent Irrelevance, which is aiming to become a new publishing venture bringing readers one standalone and stand-out piece of soul-searching sportswriting every week. You can find out more about Magnificent Irrelevance, and sign up for regular updates in the journey towards making it a reality, by visiting magnificentirrelevance.com.

Mirin Fader is a staff writer for The Ringer. She has written for the Orange County Register, espnW.com, SI.com, Slam and Bleacher Report. Her work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Los Angeles Press Club and the Best American Sports Writing series. 

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If you have any thoughts on this or any other episode, I'd love to hear from you. Reach out at shane {at} magnificentirrelevance {dot} com.

Thanks for listening. (And make sure to go find out more about Magnificent Irrelevance is trying to be!)

Shane

This 12-part podcast is brought to you by Magnificent Irrelevance, a new publishing venture which aims to bring readers one standalone and stand-out piece of soul-searching sportswriting every week. You can find out more about Magnificent Irrelevance, and sign up for regular updates in the journey towards making it a reality, by visiting magnificentirrelevance.com.

"The Sportswriter’s Life" is a series of interviews with writers and editors from around the world. They talk through their past, their present and their possible future in the business, and share their insights into the writing process and the world of sports journalism and media in general.

Episode 4 is a conversation with Michael Foley of The Sunday Times in Ireland.

Michael has been a sportswriter with the Times for more than 20 years and is the author of three books on Gaelic games, including The Bloodied Field, about events at Croke Park in November 1920 when a day of bloodshed in Dublin, during the Irish War of Independence, culminated in the deaths of 14 people who had traveled to Croke Park for a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary.  He is also the author of Kings of September, about the famous Offaly-Kerry All-Ireland final of 1982, which won the Boylesports Irish Sports Book of the Year Award.

Stories mentioned in the show:


Read Michael Foley’s “The perfect fit” (2013)
Read Denis Walsh’s “Their world is their bond” (pic) (1997)

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There’s a line on the personal website of the guest on this instalment of "The Sportswriter’s Life". Like almost all personal websites, there’s a space for comments about the calibre of the work. A small testament to what you’re getting if you hire this person. On a business website you might call them testimonials, but when the work is writing and editing, that word doesn’t seem right. Tributes might be closer to the mark.

One of those tributes is from a writer called Chris Jones, former Writer-at-Large with Esquire and the winner of two National Magazine awards. 

"Glenn treats the words that make it into print like an inheritance," Chris’s tribute goes, "like objects that are being passed down. And I believe he wants, more than anything, for those words to be good—to be worthy—and for them to continue to be good. I don’t know anyone who’s done more to seek out and highlight bright new talent."

It’s a privilege to welcome Glenn Stout to Episode 3 of this series, "The Sportswriter’s Life".

This 12-part podcast is brought to you by Magnificent Irrelevance, which is aiming to become a new publishing venture bringing readers one standalone and stand-out piece of soul-searching sportswriting every week. You can find out more about Magnificent Irrelevance, and sign up for regular updates in the journey towards making it a reality, by visiting magnificentirrelevance.com.

Glenn Stout is a writer and editor who has been centrally involved in the publication of 99 books during an illustrious career.

Alongside his own work, which includes Fenway 1912, a history of Boston’s famous ballpark, and Young Woman and the Sea, the story of Trudy Ederle, who in August 1926 became the first woman to swim the English Channel, Glenn Stout has become synonymous over the past three decades with the Best American Sports Writing series.

Best American Sports Writing is an annual collection of the best published sportswriting, a task which often began in January with as many as 10,000 submissions before being whittled down to the 25 to appear in that year’s publication. A special collection published in 1999, the Best American Sports Writing of the Century, is a staple on the bookshelves of many an aspiring sportswriter.

This year’s 2020 edition, the 30th year of the series, will, sadly, will be the last — at least in its present form, after publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt chose to bring the curtain down with the current edition.

This book is the 99th of Stout’s career as a writer, editor and collaborator, and his fans won’t have to wait long for Number 100. Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid, a chronicle of America's first gangster couple, Margaret and Richard Whittemore, will be published in March 2021.

Stories mentioned in this episode:


Read JR Moehringer's "Resurrecting the Champ" at the LA Times
Read William Nack's "Pure Heart" at SI.com

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Welcome to Episode Number 2 of "The Sportswriter’s Life" with Karen Crouse.

This 12-part podcast is brought to you by Magnificent Irrelevance, a new publishing venture which aims to bring readers one standalone and stand-out piece of soul-searching sportswriting every week. You can find out more about Magnificent Irrelevance, and sign up for regular updates in the journey towards making it a reality, by visiting magnificentirrelevance.com.

"The Sportswriter’s Life" is a series of interviews with writers and editors from around the world. They talk through their past, their present and their possible future in the business, and share their insights into the writing process and the world of sports journalism and media in general.

Episode 2 is a conversation with Karen Crouse of The New York Times.

Karen Crouse has been a sportswriter and reporter with NYT since 2005, covering a range of sports, most recently specialising in all things golf. 

Her Twitter bio says she “covers sports from outside the box”, and that is exactly the type of thing that that Magnificent Irrelevance is keen to explore. At the beginning of 2020 Karen took up a new posting as the New York Times’s International Sports Correspondent, an assignment that has turned out to be quite a bit different than expected given the events of this year. 

Karen Crouse's first book, Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town's Secret to Happiness and Excellence, was published in 2018.

Stories mentioned in the show:


Anything written by Sally Jenkins...
Read Chris Ballard's "The Courage of Jill Costello"

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Dave Hannigan has written for The Sunday Tribune, The Sunday Times, The Evening Echo and currently writes the regular column "America At Large" for  the Irish Times, covering all aspects of sports in the US, where he has been based for many years.

A professor of history at Suffolk Community College, Hannigan is also the author of a number of books, either on sport or history or the intersection between the two, including Boy Wonder: Tales From The Sidelines of an Irish Childhood and Drama in the Bahamas, the story of Muhammad Ali’s last fight against Trevor Berbick in 1981.

His latest book, Barbed Wire University, the story of the internment of Jews by Winston Churchill in England during World War II, is published in July 2021.

Stories mentioned in the show:


Read Steve Rushin's "How We Got Here" in the Sports Illustrated vault 
Read Dave Hannigan's "Old ghosts still at play on a visit down memory lane" in the Irish Times

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The Sportswriter's Life is a brand new podcast series from the brand new (or not even new!) sports publishing start-up Magnificent Irrelevance.

This 12-part series, which begins in September 2020, includes interviews with sportswriters from all over the world, including staff writers and regular contributors for the likes of The New York Times, Bleacher Report, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Series Editor of the Best American Sports Writing books, and many more. 

The series is for anyone interested in great sportswriting - whether you're already in the business, or you're trying to break into or navigate the sportswriting industry, or you're someone who likes to read great sportswriting and would like to hear a little more from the people who produce it.

Great sportswriting is about so much more than just sports or just writing. 

Great sportswriting offers insights into who we are as people, into our motivations and desires and why we do the things we do.

Sport is so often a manifestation of the best parts of life, and everywhere we look there are stories just waiting to be told. 

It is the writers who will tell those stories, and this podcast series and the wider Magnificent Irrelevance venture will try to play some small part in keeping that flame burning.

You can follow all the developments as founder Shane Breslin tries to make Magnificent Irrelevance a reality by signing up for weekly pre-launch updates at www.magnificentirrelevance.com.

In the meantime, make sure to subscribe to this podcast in your player of choice today, and the very first episode of The Sportswriter's Life will be with you very, very soon.



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