Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere
An unforgettable chronicle of a year of minor-league baseball in a small Iowa town that follows not only the travails of the players of the Clinton LumberKings but also the lives of their dedicated fans and of the town itself. Award-winning essayist Lucas Mann delivers a powerful debut in his telling of the story of the 2010 season of the Clinton LumberKings. Mann turns his eye on the players, the coaches, the fans, the radio announcer, the town, and finally on himself, a young man raised on baseball, driven to know what still draws him to the stadium. His voice is as fresh and funny as it is poignant, illuminating both the small triumphs and the harsh realities of minor-league ball. Part sports story, part cultural exploration, part memoir, Class A is a moving and unique study of why we play, why we watch, and why we remember.
Lucas Mann
Lucas Mann's essays and stories have appeared in Gawker, TriQuarterly, The Rumpus, Wigleaf, and The Kenyon Review, among others. His first book, Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, was a 2013 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. He earned his MFA in literary nonfiction from The University of Iowa, where he was an Arts Fellow and a Provost's Visiting Writer. Currently, he lives in Providence, RI and teaches at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth.