After leaving a career in music (classical guitar) because of a hand injury, David Linebarger earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Davis. Currently a Professor of Humanities at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, his publications include scholarly articles on Wallace Stevens and Modern Music, poetry in over 25 journals, and two chapbooks of poems: “War Stories” (Pudding House) and “Bed of Light” (Finishing Line Press). Recent works of creative nonfiction appear in Cagibi and Another Chicago Magazine. A nationally ranked tennis player in his age group, his current book project is a collection of nonfiction prose poems on famous tennis players.
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. March, 2020. Bolivia closes its borders. Paraguay closes its borders. New words are heard: Pandemic, Covid. The cruelest month is April when an everyday miracle occurs. A birth, a baby named “Mila.” “Mila,” a Milagro. In Paraguay the mother is all alone. […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. Tennis invented so that women and men could play together. Conversation, competition . . . The development of women’s fashion, the body freed from Victorian hoop skirts so it might chase down more balls. Legs for running or for showing off? […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. I was 20 and holed up in a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany contemplating my future. I was torn between two really good career options: to continue being a pro-tennis player (I was beating guys top 100 in the world) or give everything […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. They come to Little Rock from all over the world: Australia, Ecuador, The Bahamas, Canada, Portugal, Argentina, Colombia, Japan, India, Barbados, Chile, the Dominican Republic. They come to fight for points. Ryan Harrison, recovering from elbow surgery, must arrive five days […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. Dynamism of a cross-court backhand. Power, pace, direction. Bianca’s arms muscles legs Scott Kish’s brushstrokes flying right and left black purple and white in lines and arcs and physics of movement. No photo no video might live so fully inside where […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. “Me trying to cover the court,” Djokovic says after seeing Phetru’s Shrinking Hype of him playing—and beating–Rafa in the 2021 French Open, arguably the greatest win of his career. “I’m dying at these,” says another. “Warm and fuzzy,” says one. Small, […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. Clouds broke, breaching their way across the London sky, smokey and wispy in their sunburned paleness and altogether calming in their paced slowness. Below though, chaos reigned, raining down at speeds fearsome as racket hands shook and dreams shivered, wavered and […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. “I know our ancestors’ blood is strong we’ll keep rising,” Osaka said after committing her prize money to the relief effort after the earthquake in Haiti. An admirer of the Haitian American artist Tracy Guiteau’s work—Osaka commissioned the above portrait of herself–would […]
Check out my new book Tennis Players as Works of Art with artwork from 45 artists. Mark on his paintings: What I found captivating about Leslie Turner was the way she unconsciously produced these shapes with her hands when she hit the ball. They are so beautiful to me. In a way they are like reifications of her […]
Happy to share this publication of Brooke Hunter’s art and my short writing on Justine Henin’s Backhand, which just appeared in MasticadoresIndia. My thanks to the editor, Terveen Gill, who is doing terrific work editing this new journal. The link to this publication (the full post) and to MasticadoresIndia is below. Check out all the […]