The Best American Sports Writing

The Best American Sports Writing is a yearly anthology of magazine articles on the subject of sports published in the United States. It was started in 1991 as part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin. Articles are chosen using the same procedure with other titles in the Best American Series; the series editor chooses about 70-100 article candidates, from which the guest editor picks 25 or so for publication; many, but not all of the remaining runner-up articles listed in the appendix. The series has been edited since its inception by Glenn Stout.

Traditionally loaded with long-form feature stories and an occasional column, the annual book is considered a must-read by many sports writers, though the reach of its influence is debatable. Authors who have appeared in the series five or more times in its history are: Gary Smith (13 times), Wright Thompson (12), Steve Friedman (10), S.L. Price (nine), Charles P. Pierce (nine), William Nack (seven), Rick Reilly (seven), Roger Angell (seven), Pat Jordan (seven), Rick Telander (seven), Linda Robertson (six), Paul Solotaroff (six), Chris Jones (six), Chris Ballard (six), Mark Kram Jr. (five), Bill Plaschke (five), Peter Richmond (five) and Steve Rushin (five).

It also includes award-winning writers whose genre is not exclusively sports writing, such as Jeanne Marie Laskas whose 2008 piece "G-L-O-R-Y!" offered a rare look at professional cheerleaders. The series culminated in 2000's Best American Sports Writing of the Century, which featured few works from the 1990s. The guest editor for that book was David Halberstam, who also was the guest editor for the first edition of the series, in 1991.

Guest editors

Selected from the cream of the sports journalism crop, nearly every guest editor has had at least one story published in a previous or later edition of the book. The only exceptions are John Feinstein, and Dick Schaap (whose work appeared twice in the Best American Sports Writing of the Century anthology).[1][2]

1991: David Halberstam 1992: Thomas McGuane 1993: Frank Deford 1994: Thomas Boswell 1995: Dan Jenkins 1996: John Feinstein 1997: George Plimpton 1998: Bill Littlefield 1999: Richard Ford 2000: Dick Schaap 2001: Bud Collins 2002: Rick Reilly 2003: Buzz Bissinger 2004: Richard Ben Cramer

2005: Mike Lupica 2006: Michael Lewis 2007: David Maraniss 2008: William Nack 2009: Leigh Montville 2010: Peter Gammons 2011: Jane Leavy 2012: Michael Wilbon 2013: J.R. Moehringer 2014: Christopher McDougall 2015: Wright Thompson 2016: Rick Telander 2017: Howard Bryant 2018: Jeff Pearlman 2019: Charles P. Pierce 2020: Jackie MacMullan

References

1. http://indiepro.com/glenn/best-american-sports-writing-index-1991-2010/
2. http://indiepro.com/glenn/best-american-sports-writing-2012/