Contemporary literary sports journalism is thriving. Despite the often poor characterisation of sports journalism (Boyle, 2017), and sports media’s increasing reliance on articles and results-based match reports produced by generative artificial intelligence (Meade, 2023), the commercial value of sports coverage (English, 2021) and the accelerated professionalisation of sports journalism contribute to literary sports journalism finding new life in a variety of forms.
The popular staples, novel length works and long-form essays, continue to hold their place on interested sports’ fans increasingly digital bookshelves, however their shapes and sizes, through emphasis on elements such as participants’ personal narratives (that raise existential questions for the sportswriter (Geltner & Spiker, 2021)) now occupy a prominent place on the literary sports journalism landscape. Alongside established formats, there is also a burgeoning industry in innovative, increasingly professionalised, ‘by the fan for the fan’ produced content that borrows from traditions and draws on new techniques and established and nascent technologies.
While the larger research project examines the woefully under-scrutinised latter, this paper marks out the broader field of play. Through a brief overview of established histories, it identifies some literary sports journalism’s rich and lengthy traditions (see Bradshaw, 2024; Glanville, 1962; Geltner and Spiker, 2020; among others) and highlights significant changes and influential factors in the field’s development.