Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Fourteen poems and an essay from Burt take on, take in, and take up the teams and the games of the Women's National Basketball Assocation, or WNBA. The poems—some in rhyming forms, some in slippery new ones—encompass word games, in-jokes, on-court moves and countermoves, and serious speculation on the enduring subjects of lyric poetry: love, fame, competition, solitude, obscure heroism, nostalgia, anger, longing, blocked shots, and the value of a well-thrown entry pass. The essay (first published in The Believer) looks at the mindset of one committed fan along with the past andfuture of the still-growing league.

About the author: Stephen Burt is the author of two poetry collections, Parallel Play (Graywolf, 2006) and Popular Music (Colorado, 1999), and a book of criticism, Randall Jarrell and His Age (Columbia, 2002). He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife Jessie, son Nathan, and three cats. He supports the Lynx and the Sun.

Reviews:
[text + audio]: interview by Christopher Lydon @ Radio Open Source