For more than twenty-five years,
The Best American Sports Writing has curated the year's finest sports journalism. Continuing the tradition in a long line of notable guest editors is Rick Telander, acclaimed journalist, author, and champion of the written word
. His choices are defined by one shared thread: effort, on the part of athletes and writers alike. The physical strength it takes to play professional hockey and football, or for a forty-two-year-old writer to learn how to dunk in six months. The mental and emotional toughness needed to turn around a losing team, or to speak out about a coach. The careful striving to make everything seem effortless. This edition encompasses it all.
The Best American Sports Writing 2016 includes Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, L. Jon Wertheim and Ken Rodriguez, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, Brett Popplewell, Alexandra Starr, Wright Thompson
and others RICK TELANDER is a
Chicago Sun-Times senior sports columnist and the Basketball Evangelist for
Slam magazine. He has also written for
Sports Illustrated and
ESPN: The Magazine, and has been featured seven times in
The Best American Sports Writing. He is the author of eight books, including
Heaven Is a Playground and
From Red Ink to Roses. GLENN STOUT, series editor of
The Best American Sports Writing since its inception, is the author of
Young Woman and the Sea and
Fenway 1912.