Literary Sports Journalism: Beyond the Boundaries

The project explores and analyses the multiple and fertile interconnections between sports writing and mainstream creative writing, including the works of Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, Joyce Carol Oates and Martin Amis. In so doing, it delivers a reappraisal of a number of key writers. As such, the book aims to unite journalism studies with both literary analysis and philosophy. At root it is an inquiry into aesthetics: an inquiry into the beauty of words, the beauty (and ugliness) of sport, and the distinctive beauty that arises when words are used to capture sport. But the word ‘sport’ is used in a broad sense. The sports writing the project is concerned with is not always focused on sporting action. In fact, most of it isn’t. Many of the great writers and pieces that are explored are very much rooted off the field rather than on-field: psychologically astute profile pieces, morose evocations of declining prowess, eviscerating critiques of a hyper-commercial industry disconnected from its playful roots, immersive pieces written from the very belly of a sport star’s entourage. It argues that it is the writing around sport rather than about sport that is often the most profound, perceptive and beautiful, and which tells us more about what it is to be human.

Importantly, the book is written by a practitioner, with the practitioner’s perspectives from both the press box and the academy informing its content.

Tom Bradshaw is an academic and journalist, based in Gloucestershire, UK, but working internationally. As an award-winning sports journalist, he has covered major events and stories across the globe, including spells in Japan and France. His journalism has appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Times (London), Guardian/Observer and Times Literary Supplement. He appears regularly on BBC radio. Tom is a passionate advocate of press freedom and has conducted extensive research into freedom of expression and censorship, as well as literary sports journalism. He is joint editor of Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics and has worked as a consultant to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office on media ethics issues abroad.