On November 7, 2019, two novelists appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their books on squash and tennis. Talking about their work in a conversation with Gelf Magazine co-founder Carl Bialik in this episode: Benjamin Markovits—teacher of creative writing at Royal Holloway, Univer…

On November 7, 2019, two novelists appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their books on squash and tennis. Reading from their work in this episode: Benjamin Markovits—teacher of creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of nine novels, including Playing …

On June 15, 2016, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about work on Muhammad Ali. In this episode: Alex Belth, the editor of Esquire Classic and curator for Deadspin's The Stacks. Robert Lipsyte, a longtime sportswriter who penned the fighter's New York Times obituary.…

On June 15, 2016, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about work on Muhammad Ali. In this episode: Brin-Jonathan Butler wrote and directed Ali vs Stevenson: The Greatest Fight That Never Was and authored The Domino Diaries.…

On July 12, 2016, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their work on the Olympics. In this episode: David Davis, author of Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku, the first U.S. superstar Olympic swimmer.

On July 12, 2016, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their work on the Olympics. In this episode: Dvora Meyers, author of The End of the Perfect 10: The Making and Breaking of Gymnastics' Top Score from Nadia to Now.…

On July 12, 2016, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their work on the Olympics. In this episode: Varsity Letters regular Dave Zirin discussed his book Brazil's Dance with the Devil and what's really going on in Rio.…

On July 24, 2017, four writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to talk about their recent baseball books. In this episode: Ron Kaplan, author of Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War Faith and Fear in Flushing blogger Greg Prince, author of Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, St…

On August 17, 2016, four writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to talk tennis. In this episode: Bart Davis, co-author with Richard Williams of Black and White: The Way I See It. Tom Perrotta, who writes about tennis for The Wall Street Journal and is not the author of Little Children.…

On August 17, 2016, four writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to talk about their work on tennis. Reading from and talking about their work in this episode: Caitlin Thompson, co-founder of the quarterly Racquet—which published its first issue later that month. Racquet contributor Gerry Marzorati, wh…

On August 16, 2017, Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge featured sportswriter Steve Rushin, author of Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir.

On November 21, 2017, Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge celebrated the publication of The Best American Sports Writing of 2017. Speaking in this episode: ESPN senior writer Howard Bryant, editor of the 2017 volume of the annual series. Bomani Jones, host of The Right Time podcast and author of "Kaepernick Is Asking …

On July 24, 2017, four writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to talk about their recent baseball books. In this episode: MLB.com executive reporter Mark Feinsand, author of The New York Yankees Fans' Bucket List Sports Illustrated writer Jay Jaffe, author of The Cooperstown Casebook: Who's in the Bas…

On September 9, 2019, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to share some of the most interesting stories in sports business. Speaking in this episode: Ben Reiter, a Sports Illustrated senior editor, discussed the updated paperback of his book, Astroball: The New Way to Win It All.…

On September 9, 2019, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to share some of the most interesting stories in sports business. Speaking in this episode: Matthew Futterman, deputy sports editor of The New York Times and author of Players: How Sports Became a Business, discussed his new book, Runn…

On September 9, 2019, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to share some of the most interesting stories in sports business. Speaking in this episode: Albert Chen, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated, read from and discussed his new book, Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between …

On November 21, 2017, Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge celebrated the The Best American Sports Writing of 2017. Speaking in this episode: ESPN senior writer Howard Bryant, editor of the 2017 volume of the annual series. Bomani Jones, host of The Right Time podcast and author of "Kaepernick Is Asking for Justice, No…

On August 1, 2018, sports-book authors Ben Reiter and Lori Leachman appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge. Speaking in this episode: Sports Illustrated's Ben Reiter—who accurately predicted the Astros' 2017 World Series win three years earlier—read from and discussed his new book, Astroball: The New Way to W…

On January 30, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge for a look at the dark side of Olympic sports. Speaking in Part II: Thomas H. Murray discussed his new book, Good Sport: Why Our Games Matter — and How Doping Undermines Them.

On January 30, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge for a look at the dark side of Olympic sports. Speaking in Part I: Carla Correa and Meghan Louttit of the New York Times discussed their coverage of the Larry Nassar trial.

On March 13, 2018, Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge spent a night devoted to soccer. Author Sebastian Abbot read from and discussed his new book, The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars.

On August 1, 2018, sports-book authors Ben Reiter and Lori Leachman appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge. Speaking in Part II: Duke University professor Lori Leachman, the daughter of former New York Giants Super Bowl XXI-winning defensive coach Lamar Leachman, read from and discussed her new book, The King…

On June 18, 2018, three of our favorite sportswriters appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge. Speaking in Part III: Legendary sportswriter Robert Lipsyte read from and discussed the reprint of his seminal work, SportsWorld: An American Dreamland.

On June 18, 2018, three of our favorite sportswriters appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge. Speaking in Part II: Mike Pesca is the author of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History and host of the podcast of the same name, as well as Slate's daily podcast, The Gist.…

On June 18, 2018, three of our favorite sportswriters appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge. Speaking in Part I: Dave Zirin discussed his two new books: Jim Brown: Last Man Standing, and Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, co-written by Michael Bennett.…

On October 9, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge for a celebration of the history of basketball. Speaking in Part I: New York Times Magazine staff writer Sam Anderson read from and discussed his book, Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, its Chaotic Founding... its Purloin…

On October 9, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge for a celebration of the history of basketball. Speaking in Part II: New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Coleman is the co-author of Jerry West's memoir West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life.…

On October 9, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge for a celebration of the history of basketball. Speaking in Part I: Veteran Varsity Letters speaker Rafe Bartholomew made his return. He is most recently the co-author—along with Jackie MacMullan and Dan Klores—of the new book Basketball…

On November 28, 2018, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge as part of an evening devoted to hockey—hosted by Greg Wyshynski, senior NHL writer at ESPN and co-host of the Puck Soup podcast.

On February 11, 2019, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge as part of an evening devoted to books about tennis—hosted by Racquet cofounder and publisher Caitlin Thompson. Speaking in Part II: Paris Review columnist Rowan Ricardo Phillips watched every single watchable match of the 2017 ATP sea…

On February 11, 2019, three writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge as part of an evening devoted to books about tennis—hosted by Racquet cofounder and publisher Caitlin Thompson. Speaking in Part I: A trial lawyer and former U.S. Congress candidate, Judy Aydelott brought stories—and slides—about playi…

On July 18, 2019, five writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to pay tribute to Jim Bouton, who passed away last week. The pitcher-cum-author wrote the seminal work "Ball Four," which gave fans an unprecedented look inside the world of professional baseball. Speaking in Part II: Neil deMause, Deadspin…

On July 18, 2019, five writers appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to pay tribute to Jim Bouton, who passed away last week. The pitcher-cum-author wrote the seminal work "Ball Four," which gave fans an unprecedented look inside the world of professional baseball. Speaking in Part I: Jay Jaffe, senior write…

Ahead of his appearance at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters in New York City, Jack McCallum talks with Carl Bialik about his new book about the Lakers of the 1960s and '70s, and the Warriors of today. Gelf Magazine: http://www.gelfmagazine.com/ Jack's website: http://jackmccallum.net/ Music by Lee Rosevere ('Southside'): https://leerosevere.bandcamp…

Ahead of his appearance at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters in New York City, David Gessner talks with Carl Bialik about his new memoir and history of ultimate frisbee: 'Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession, and My Wild Youth.' Gelf Magazine: http://www.gelfmagazine.com/ Book site: http://www.ultimateglory.net/ Music by Lee Rosevere: https://leeroseve…