The Ideal Gift for the Literary Fight Fan: Fighters and Writers by John G. Rodwan, Jr.

Dec. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- “A spirited and far-ranging meditation on boxing that's also a thoughtful inquiry into the relationship between the writer's craft and the fighter's.”
– Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time: An Education at the Fights

“Rodwan's essay collection Fighters & Writers takes a hard look at boxers (like Ali, Mike Tyson and Joe Louis) and the authors (like Mailer, Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates) who find them fascinating.”
– The Oregonian

Fighters & Writers, from Mongrel Empire Press, is a perfect gift for readers who share writers’ long-standing fascination with pugilism. In the essay collection, author John G. Rodwan, Jr., considers both the lively body of literature directly related to boxing as well as the ways boxing relates to writers not usually identified with it. The volume also includes personal essays involving boxing.

Essays in Fighters & Writers discuss works about boxing by authors such as Albert Camus, W.C. Heinz, A.J. Liebling, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, George Plimpton, Philip Roth, New Yorker editor David Remnick, Darin Strauss and José Torres – a boxing champion who became a writer – as well as the cultural impact made by boxers like Muhammad Ali, Max Baer, James Braddock, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Joe Louis and Mike Tyson. Rodwan also considers the sport in connection with figures such as Martin Amis, Christopher Hitchens, John McCain, Ian McEwan, George Orwell, Henry Rollins and Oscar Wilde.

Fighters & Writers is neither a traditional sports book nor a conventional collection of literary essays. It blends literary criticism, journalism and memoir. The title essay surveys a selection of the mammoth body of literature involving boxing in addition to writing on closely related topics such as confidence games. “The Ali Act” considers writers’ undiminished interest in one extraordinary boxer. “The Fighting Life” looks at two prominent writers’ use of boxing in their fiction. “A First-Class Sport” assesses boxing’s frequently overlooked positive aspects by examining the memoirs and autobiographies of several boxing enthusiasts, including a former heavyweight champion, a well-known trainer and television analyst, and prominent public figures including a former president and a U.S. senator. Other pieces in the collection explore how boxing inserts itself in writers’ imaginations even when they write about other subjects. Essays on diverse topics such as book dedications, Orwell’s Spanish Civil War memories, digressions, tattoos and losing weight reveal the close, if not always recognized, connections between fighters and writers.

“I met John Rodwan Jr. when he first entered the crazy, unique, and ever-fascinating world of the fight game, and his passion was instantly recognizable,” says Showtime boxing analyst Steve Farhood. “In Fighters & Writers, he examines the deep connection between some of our greatest writers (Camus, Hemingway, Mailer, Roth, etc.) and some of our greatest fighters. And that examination is welcomed because larger-than-life figures such as Muhammad Ali and Jack Dempsey, as well as honest fighting men who never transcend the ring, will be studied, analyzed, and written about for as long as we read, wonder, and try and understand our makeup.”

One of the selections in Fighters & Writers was named a Notable Essay of 2009 by The Best American Essays and another has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

About the publisher: Mongrel Empire Press was established in 2007 with a mission to publish well-written, thoughtfully-considered works with mixed generic, disciplinary, and philosophical approaches. Mongrel Empire Press is a founding member of the Oklahoma Small Press Association and a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

About the author: John G. Rodwan, Jr.’s writing has been published by The American Interest, The Mailer Review, Blood and Thunder, Fight News, Spot Literary Magazine, The Nevada Review, Open Letters Monthly, The Oregonian, Palimpsest, Free Inquiry, The Humanist and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, he has lived in Geneva, Switzerland, and Brooklyn, New York, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Details: Fighters & Writers, by John G. Rodwan, Jr., 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9801684-8-8; $18.00; 207 + xv pages; illustrated

Fighters & Writers is available from the Press, Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, Powells.com, and selected bookstores.

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Mongrel Empire Press: An Eclectic Publishing House established in 2007 with a mission to publish well-written, thoughtfully-considered works with mixed generic, disciplinary, and philosophical approaches. Mongrel Empire Press is a founding member of the Oklahoma Small Press Association and a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.