ONE RING CIRCUS: Dispatches from the World of Boxing

Katherine Dunn

Most readers of Katherine Dunn know and love her for her groundbreaking, National Book Award-nominated,bestselling novel GEEK LOVE; few, however are familiar with her journalistic work, in particular her essays and articles on boxing which she has penned over the last two and a half decades. This anthology is the first compilation ever of her pieces on the sport for such commercial publications as Sports Illustrated, Playboy, NY Times Magazine as well as Willamette Week, the weekly paper of her hometown, Portland, OR. Dunn casts her perceptive and compassionate eye on the the pugilistic artistry and individual bravado of such greats as Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali and lesser-knowns such as Francisco Roche, Andy Minsker and Johnny Tapia, and paints a vividly colorful canvas of the countless figures who mend the cuts and wrap the wrists, trainers, promoters, fans and critics who together make up the world of the one-ring circus. New readers and older fans of hers alike will attain a greater appreciation for not only the sport of boxing but the skill and journalistic range of one of the most gifted and unusual writers in America today. For readers of the sport and Dunn, this is a one-two knock out!