Review: A Game of Two Halves: The best of Sport 2005-2019

Sport has been our most exciting literary periodical since 1988 when it was conceived by (the late) Nigel Cox, Elizabeth Knox, Fergus Barrowman and Damien Wilkins - apparently in Wilkins’ Ford Escort van as the group drove around the Basin Reserve.

Sport ended for a variety of reasons: new media offered alternative avenues of publication, funding problems and the toll of keeping it afloat became too much for Barrowman who had to squeeze in his Sport duties — assisted by a roster of often unpaid editors — around a full-time job at Victoria University Press. He made the difficult decision to end it last year as the pandemic hit.

As Barrowman’s introduction makes clear, running something like Sport in Aotearoa New Zealand is a hard, thankless task — even if the literary talent showcased is world class. The good news is that those late to the party can now get a taste of the marvel that Sport was thanks to this generous 600 page anthology — a grab-bag of Sport’s greatest plays which mixes poetry, short fiction and non-fiction pieces from both familiar names (Elizabeth Knox, Eleanor Catton and Bill Manhire) and up-and-comers like Cate Palmer, Ruby Solly and Tayi Tibble — whose hilarious, razor-sharp editor’s intro to the final edition of Sport 47 (which appeared with a vibrant pink cover) is reprinted here.

In his introduction, Barrowman says he based his selections on “how immediately rereading each story, poem or essay rekindled the excitement I had felt when I read it the first time. I tried not to second-guess myself” — and readers can be thankful for that gut-instinct approach because the result is the most enjoyable anthology of New Zealand literature I’ve read.

Sport, always a little ahead of its time, has aged well. Anthologies can be a slog — so concerned with including the right people and ticking off the issues of the day that it can all feel a bit claustrophobic, ossified. No risk of that here; whether it’s an essay on the lasting impact of The Front Lawn’s song Andy by Pip Adam, a chic poem by Sonja Yelich (yes, Lorde’s mum) or a report from the harried-mother-with-young-kids frontline — Kirsten McDougall’s Clean Hands Save Lives — this wonderful anthology keeps the surprises coming.

Despite the variety of genres and writers covered here and Barrowman’s insistence on a “manifesto-free” selection process, Sport does have a recognisable DNA. Sharp writing is a given; there’s also an abiding punk attitude that values vitality and energy and approaches issues from unexpected angles — (and it’s not an age thing — Sport was one of the first to publish the Barbara Anderson, then in her sixties.)

That verve, for want of a better word, always differentiated it from the more staid Landfall and it’s one that — with a few exceptions — sustains across 600 pages. Barrowman notes, with some pride, that C.K. Stead cancelled his subscription when guest editor Gregory O’Brien included photography in Sport 15.

Each reader will find their own favourites here. I was drawn to the icy elegance of an early, previously uncollected story by Eleanor Catton, Descent from Avalanche; the tense crime tale that is Breton Dukes’ A Lonely Road; Eamonn Mara’s touching Dog Farm, Food Game and the wry “other woman” blues of Tracey Slaughter’s Cicada Motel.

Some writers here — Catton, Knox and Ashleigh Young — became literary stars; others, for whatever reason, are little read today. William Brandt’s superb story Broken, which culminates with a visit to the emergency ward after a nasty accident sustained in the throes of passion, is a case in point; he’s just one of many here whose past works I’ll now be seeking out.

Overall, Sport shows our writers have come a long way in the last 15 years; we’re more comfortable in our skin, not looking over our shoulders for permission or praise. Tayi Tibble says it best, “I hope you find this edition is particularly gang, hot and flossy.” Yes, yes and yes.

Reviewed by Greg Fleming