Losing Season

Name: Losing Season
SKU: 4844
Price: 16.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Jack Ridl

$16.00

Losing Season explores the often unsettlingly central role that sports play in American life. From the star player to the kid who never gets in a game to the town religious fanatic to the disgruntled parent—all have their say. Even if you haven’t lived in this town, you will recognize the lives of quiet endurance, unrecognized triumph, harsh weather, and hardnosed hope that propel people through the season.

Categories: All Books, Jack Ridl, Notable Voices, Poetry Tags: athlete, basketball, Jack Ridl, Losing Season, notable voices, poem, Poetry, poetry book, sports

Meet the Author

JACK RIDL is the author of several collections of poetry — including Broken Symmetry, Outside the Center Ring and Against Elegies — and several literature textbooks. He taught poetry and literature for thirty-six years, was named one of the 100 most influential educators in the world of sport by the Institute for International Sport, and awarded Michigan Professor of the Year by the CASE/Carnegies foundation. He learned about basketball from his father, Hall of Fame basketball coach C.G. “Buzz” Ridl.

Critic Reviews

An unmatched collection bringing to high school basketball the nuance and detail the film Bull Durham brought to minor league baseball. Poems so compelling, so varied, so familiar to anyone who has felt the impact of high school sports that they may well introduce a new genre. This is a terrific book – there’s nothing like it.
— Conrad Hilberry

Losing Season isn’t just a great book of poetry, for it is much more than that—it is more like the Great American Novel we have long hoped would grace our literary landscape.
— Richard Jones

Excerpt

Losing Season explores the often unsettlingly central role that sports plays in American life. From the star player to the kid who never gets in a game to the town religious fanatic to the disgruntled parent—all have their say. Even if you haven’t lived in this town, you will recognize the lives of quiet endurance, unrecognized triumph, harsh weather, and hardnosed hope that propel people through the season.