New Anthony Ervin Book Set For 2016 Release

Photo by Delly Carr

BROOKLYN, New York, October 6. ANTHONY Ervin will join the small group of Olympic swimmers to add author to his list of accomplishments, with today’s announcement that the gold medalist will publish a book in 2016 about his return to the sport.

Ervin’s book is set to be titled “Chasing The Water Dragon: A Tale of Talent, Turbulence and Transformation,” according to an article on Publishers Weekly’s website. According to the article, the book will cover Ervin’s “return to the sport, a decade later, as a more competitive, and stronger, athlete.” The book will be published by Edge of Sports Books, a new imprint of publishing house Akashic Books. Constantine Markides will serve as co-author.

Ervin won Olympic gold in 2000 in the 50 free, tying for the win with teammate Gary Hall Jr. A few years later, he walked away from the sport but began the process of a comeback around 2011. He qualified for the 2012 Olympics and was fifth in the 50 free final.

Ervin’s book will be one of the first two title released by Edge of Sport Books, according to Publishers Weekly. An examination of sexual assault in sports titled “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape” is also planned for a 2016 release.

Ervin will join such fellow Olympic legends as Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Mark Spitz and Jeff Farrell to have their stories told in book form.

Below is a press release from Akashic Books:

Conversations surrounding American sports have recently turned from the reverential to the critical: from the handling (or, rather, non-handling) by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of the Ray Rice assault video; to Adrian Peterson’s recent indictment for alleged child abuse; to the six news outlets who refuse to use the Washington R— name (bringing the total number to twenty-one), 2014 has become the year more American sports fans are demanding change than ever before.

Political sportswriter Dave Zirin (The Nation) has never shied away from criticizing that which diehard sports fans hold dear. Now, award-winning independent publisher Akashic Books is thrilled to partner with Zirin to launch a timely new imprint: Edge of Sports.

“We have long wanted to start a sports-themed imprint that would somehow stay true to the progressive spirit of Akashic,” says publisher Johnny Temple, who calls Zirin “the ideal curator” of the imprint. Edge of Sports books will show “the ways where sports and politics illuminate one another,” says Zirin, in order “to clarify and expand necessary discussions in the sports world as well as in the real world it inhabits.”

The Edge of Sports titles will address issues across many different sports—football, basketball, swimming, tennis, etc., etc.—and at both the professional and non-professional/collegiate levels. Furthermore, Zirin brings to the table select stories of athletes’ journeys and what they are facing and how they evolve both in their sport as well as against the greater backdrop of one’s life’s odyssey.

The inaugural books under the Edge of Sports imprint are:

CHASING THE WATER DRAGON: A TALE OF TALENT, TURBULENCE, AND TRANSFORMATION
by Anthony Ervin and Constantine Markides
(projected publication date: March/April 2016)

Two-time US Olympian and gold medalist swimmer Anthony Ervin teams with acclaimed journalist and swimmer Constantine Markides to pen the story of Ervin’s incredible journey and success. After winning seven NCAA titles, two World Championships, and the Olympic gold (at the 2000 Sydney Olympics), Ervin dropped out of the competitive swimming world and disappeared from the public eye, only to make a startling return over a decade later, qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics and posting a faster time at age 31 than he did at 19. On track to compete for the US in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ervin continues to be one of the fastest men on the planet, and one of the most intriguing.

“It’s in keeping that the publisher of my personal tale is Akashic,” Ervin says, “and that the editor is Dave Zirin, who can look below the surface to deeper social issues underlying athletics. It’s one hell of a team.”

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT: COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND THE POLITICS OF RAPE
by Jessica Luther
(projected publication date: February/March 2016)

Jessica Luther is the foremost journalistic authority on the intersection of college football and sexual assault. Through her work at Sports on Earth, The Nation, Sports Illustrated, RH Reality Check, The Atlantic, Think Progress, Salon, The Guardian, and more, she has addressed rape culture in the specific context of college football and its effects on American college campuses. Unsportsmanlike Conduct will be the first book to investigate this intersection with depth, chronicling the problem of sexual assault and college football in light of race, media, the NCAA, and the overarching problem of how sexual assault—in and out of college football—is addressed (or, rather, not addressed) in America. Timely and informed, Luther’s Unsportsmanlike Conduct will finally provide the robust look that gives this troubling subject the serious, thoughtful attention it deserves.

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