FAST BREAK

About the Book

Ken’s poetry has been compared to Robert Lowell’s, and distinguished poet William Meredith has said that Ken has “a splendid and various [poetic] gift.” His previous work includes: The Ghosts - Notes from a Field Study; Grand Canyon Days; New Mexico Notebook; Searching for Mr. Stevens; The Structure of the Body; Vermeer in Words; Time After Time - a Novel in Verse; 50 Years - Poems for My Wife; The Ratlue Diaries (a memoir); and several plays, including The Dancing Apsárás, or Captain Willard’s Blues, a prequel/sequel to the film Apocalypse Now. He has received a Hopwood Poetry Award, an American Academy of Poets Prize, a Shubert Playwriting Fellowship, and has taught literature and creative writing at four universities, as well as working as a mayor’s aide for economic development in St. Louis, an assistant dean at the University of Arizona, and a grass-roots environmental activist.

About the Author

In this collection, Ken Lauter recounts a personal history in pickup basketball and examines the sport as a social phenomenon. He vividly describes games he’s competed in, the courts, cities, and states where they were played, and many players he has known. “It’s been,” he says, “a wonderful ride,” but also admits that playing full court until nearly 70 has had some severe consequences. Above all, Ken’s poems and essays strive to demonstrate that pick-up ball is a unique sports animal. He agrees with Ross Gay that it is a place of “radical socialization” in contrast to mainstream American athletics which drains much of the joy out of ‘the game,’ with a focus on money and celebrity, and an obsession with winning.