Shot Clocks: Poems for the WNBA

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Fourteen poems and an essay from Burt take on, take in, and take up the teams and the games of the Women's National Basketball Assocation, or WNBA. The poems—some in rhyming forms, some in slippery new ones—encompass word games, in-jokes, on-court moves and countermoves, and serious speculation on the enduring subjects of lyric poetry: love, fame, competition, solitude, obscure heroism, nostalgia, anger, longing, blocked shots, and the value of a well-thrown entry pass. The essay (first published in The Believer) looks at the mindset of one committed fan along with the past andfuture of the still-growing league.