Cirrus@Austlit

'Until the mid to late 1960s in Australia, the very act of writing about sport – traditionally and essentially a working-class pursuit – would see the words immediately discounted from literary consideration. We now know sport of all kinds to be strong social, historical, increasingly political, and cultural touchstones for many communities here and elsewhere. Through its exploration of the relationships between creative writing and sport, this special issue comfortably eschews the lazy, though sturdy, conventions often ascribed to sports writing – the back page box scores, hagiographic biographies, and relentless match reportage – in favour of examinations of the intersectional, illuminations of the liminal, and foregrounding of the interdisciplinary and eclectic experiences the writing of sport can offer. As a collection, the articles in this issue illustrate the vast array of theoretical approaches brought to sports writing; they survey creative non-fiction and journalistic practices and situate poetry and short and long- form prose related to a diverse range of sporting activities alongside investigations of representation, interrogations of histories, and the combination of creative writing and sports practices as an approach to address trauma.' (Kasey Symons, Lee McGowan and Ali Hickling, Editorial introduction)