Fergus Barrowman - A Game of Two Halves: The Best of Sport 2005–2019

Anthologies published by VUP include:

Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport 19882004

(edited by Damien Wilkins, 2005)

Middle Distance: Long Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand

(edited by Craig Gamble, 2021)

Six by Six: Short Stories by New Zealands Best Writers

(edited by Bill Manhire, 1989, 2021)

Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Womens Anthology

(edited by Mikaela Nyman & Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, 2021)

Monsters in the Garden: An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand

Science Fiction and Fantasy

(edited by Elizabeth Knox & David Larsen, 2020)

Short Poems of New Zealand

(edited by Jenny Bornholdt, 2018)

Twenty Contemporary New Zealand Poets

(edited by Andrew Johnston & Robyn Marsack, 2009)

The Best of Best New Zealand Poems

(edited by Bill Manhire & Damien Wilkins, 2008)

Some Other Country: New Zealands Best Short Stories

(edited by Marion McLeod & Bill Manhire, 1984, 2008)

Victoria University of Wellington Press

PO Box 600, Wellington

New Zealand

vup.victoria.ac.nz

Copyright VUP and contributors 2021

First published 2021

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the permission of the publishers. The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

ISBN 9781776564316 (print)

ISBN 9781776564651 (EPUB)

ISBN 9781776564668 (Kindle)

A catalogue record is available from the

National Library of New Zealand.

Ebook conversion 2021 by meBooks

Contents

Sport was conceived in the back of Damien Wilkins yellow Ford Escorthe tells the story in the introduction to Great Sporting Momentsand born in spring 1988.

It has died three natural deaths. The first came after five years with the slender and tired issue 10, the cover of which features the large face of Jack Knox Barrowman, born in spring 1992. Sport 11 was nearly a farewell best ofthe 1st XIand thank you Forbes Williams for a good idea that we didnt usebecause resurrection came in the form of great new writingThe Poets Wife by Bill Manhire, Not Her Real Name by Emily Perkins, After Bathing at Baxters by Gregory OBrien.

The second death was in 2014, when after 41 issues of unbroken support Creative New Zealand declined a grant application without notice or discussion. Pooh to that (as Barbara Anderson would have said).

The third death was in 2020, when the pressure on me and everyone else of keeping the VUP show on the road in the pandemic meant there was no way of putting on a sideshow. And as the year turned we thought, yes, its time.

*

We were driving around the Basin ReserveI can remember that, but not where we were going, or what produced the thought at that particular moment. But the pressure behind it was a degree of dissatisfaction at VUP. I was in my fifth year (good grief), and although with Bill Manhires leadership we had begun to open the press up to publishing more new writersfirst books by Dinah Hawken, Elizabeth Knox, Jenny Bornholdt and Barbara Anderson in 198789there was only so much a firm with a staff of 1.5 (Damien was the half) publishing 68 books a year could do, and I was getting to know lots of terrific new writers. How could I publish more of them?

The local litmag scene was in a low state. Islands hadnt appeared for a while, and while it hadnt closedRobin Dudding made that clear when we visited him to ask for his blessing (see pp6264 below)I saw an opportunity to copy what Robin did and take Islands place. The other long-lasting mag, Landfall, was being edited uncertainly by committee and turning down the very writers I wanted to publish. Meanwhile two stylish interventions had come and deliberately gone again. And was the kind of bracing intervention every literary scene needs from time to time, and stayed exactly its prescribed course of four issues, while