Crossing Boundaries: An international anthology of women's experiences in sport

Crossing Boundaries: An Anthology of Women’s Experiences in Sport will help you discover, understand, and appreciate the depth and complexity of the female experience in sport. This is a journey to the center of feminine identity, a survey of past and present voices that lead you into the minds, hearts, and souls of women in sport. The largest literary compilation of writings on and by women in sports, Crossing Boundaries serves as a chronology of attitudes and a catalog of experiences. International in scope, some of these pieces have been translated into English for the first time, thus expanding the sports canon.

All genres are represented-poems, short stories, prose memoirs, journalistic accounts, plays, and novels-to illustrate the broad reach of the literature written by women from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives. This is the female story in and out of sport, one told by outsiders, insiders, spectators, recreational athletes, and transnational sports heroes.

Crossing Boundaries starts with an important historical perspective dating back to Cynisca, the first female victor in the ancient Olympic Games. The book goes on to examine themes which have long been included in women’s writings yet have been long overlooked by both feminists and literary critics. These themes include:

the significance and centrality of the body;
the impact of exclusion and the female reaction to it;
the role of the female spectator as an outsider;
the female identification, connection, and ultimate merger with nature;
the connections women make with others in and through sport;
the athlete’s identity; and
the metaphorical uses of sport.

Because women had for so long been excluded from official sports, relegated for centuries to the role of passive spectator, you will find literature about play, dance, movement, games, and exercise-activities often considered ancillary to and preparatory for the more important activity of sport. Similarly, since the editors extended their search to other countries to expand the limits of the contemporary Western perceptions of sport, you can widen your understanding of the female sporting experience.

The young women who took advantage of the passing of Title IX by the NCAA in 1972 to take part in high school and college sports have now become mothers, and their daughters are following in their footsteps. A new atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement for female athletes of all ages means more and more women are experiencing the joy of sports participation. This book connects generations of women and girls with a vivid, compelling sporting heritage.

Part 1. The Outsiders: Cheerleaders, Lamenters, and Rebels

Lost and Won - Mary Russell Mitford

The Hunting of the Hare - Margaret Cavendish (Duchess of Newcastle)

Boys of These Men Full Speed - Muriel Rukeyser

Hang-gliders in January - U.A. Fanthorpe

The Sprinters - Lillian Morrison

Smalltown Dance - Judith Wright

Young Girls Running - Jean Earle

Golf - Laura Jensen

Women’s Tug of War at Lough Arrow - Tess Gallagher

A Study for the Badminton Game - Pauline Stainer

Hotshot - Nancy Boutilier

Marathoner - Stephanie Plotin

Running - Leslie Ullman

On Watching a World Series Game - Sonia Sanchez

The Jockey - Carson McCullers

The Splendid Outcast - Beryl Markham

Why Aren’t Women Racing at Indy? Janet Guthrie Knows - Tracy Dodds

A Marble Game in 1955 - Jadene Felina Stevens

Playing Pool - Julia Darling

The Lady Pitcher - Cynthia MacDonald

Change-Ups - Maria Noell Goldberg

First Peace - Barbara Lamblin

Part 2. Dear Body . . .

Little League Women - Deena Metzger

Athletic - Anne Rouse

Pumping Iron - Diane Ackerman

Disappearing - Monica Wood

The Dancer - Nancy Boutilier

Belly Dancer - Diane Wakoski

Learning to Ride - Susan McMaster

What if I Become a Body Builder? - Tobey Kaplan

Hard-Hitting Woman: Winning the Serve - Maxine Silverman

A Running Girl: Fragments of My Body History - Ulla Kosonen

The Swimmer - Lorna Crozier

Runner Resumes Training After an Injury - Grace Butcher

"Muscles" Hougen Comes Out of Softball Retirement - Judith Hougen

Late Bloomers - Barbara Smith

Antarctica Considers Her Explorers - Diane Ackerman

To a Woman Caving - Linda Rose Parker

Biking at Dusk Along the Charles - Jean Monahan

Runner at Twilight - Grace Butcher

Swimmers - Ruth Harriet Jacobs

The Nude Swim - Anne Sexton

Swimming the Body’s Water - Lucia Cordell Getsi

The Swimmer - Angela Gatteschi

Part 3. Woman and Nature: The Bond With the Hunted

The Mighty Hunter - Mrs. J.B. Worley

Men Fishing in the Arno - Elizabeth Jennings

Hooked - Nancy Boutilier

Fishing - Kay Ryan

Lady with a Falcon - May Sarton

Song of the Fisherman’s Lover - Roseann Lloyd

Birdshooting Season - Olive Senior

The Goring - Sylvia Plath

The Buck - Joyce Carol Oates

Time of Fish Dying - Gabriela Melinescu

The Falconers - Simonne Jacquemard

Death Invited - May Swenson

His Power: He Tames What Is Wild - Susan Griffin

Jacklight - Louise Erdrich

Fishing Off Nova Scotia - Sharon Olds

The Trappers - Margaret Atwood

The Weighing - Jane Hirshfield

In Yellow Grass - Jane Hirshfield

Part 4. The Contact Imperative

Basketball at Bryn Mawr - Ethel le Roy de Koven

Transit - Adrienne Rich

Red Runner - Diane Wakoski

Running with Helena - Theresa W. Miller

The Interpretation of Baseball - Carole Oles

City Ball - Roberta Israeloff

The Pain Business - Linda France

The Cyclist - Cherry Clayton

Ping-Pong Doubles Match - Mary Ann Waters

Not Shooting Sitting Birds - Jean Rhys

A Swimming Lesson - Jewelle L. Gomez

In the Ocean - Patricia Goedicke

Woman Skating - Margaret Atwood

Daughter, Diving - Paulette Roeske

Golf Lesson - Susan Ioannou

Teaching Chess to a Daughter - Jo Casullo

Lines - Barbara Smith

Outswimming - Lucia Cordell Getsi

Sometimes in Winter - Linda Pastan

Morning Athletes - Marge Piercy

Soccer by Moonlight - Anita Skeen

The Locker Room - Susan Richards Shreve

Competition - Mariah Burton Nelson

Prothalamion - Maxine Kumin

Pair Partner - Janice Bultman

State of Grace - Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev - Adrienne Rich

Part 5. Encounters With Sport: Discovery of Self

A Winter Ride - Amy Lowell

I Dance - Valeska Gert

First Dive - Florence McNeil

The Dive - Cornelia Brownell Gould

April Fools on Polar Circus - Janet Roddan

Surfing - Ellen Phethean

The Tournament - Merril Mushroom

Posting-Up - Stephanie Grant

Her Marathon - Jenifer Levin

Women Who Run - Laurel Starkey

Running - Ellen E. Moore

Swimming - Svava Jakobsdottir

Mary Bacon Loses Her Final Race - Joan Ryan

Margarethe "Gretel" Bergmann from How She Played the Game - Cynthia L. Cooper

Contest - Florence Victor

The Uni-Gym - Anne Rouse

Early Morning Swim - Vicky Darling

Part 6. Beyond Gender, Space, and Time: Dervish Rhythms in the Games of the Gods

Golden Section, Giants Stadium - Diane Ackerman

Frozen Motion - Wislawa Szymborska

Dancers Exercising - Amy Clampitt

Martha Graham - Elaine Equi

Breaking the Speed Record - Cristina Peri Rossi

Amateur Athletic Meeting - Elizabeth Smither

The Runner - Erin Mouré

Dance Memories - Denise Levertov

Song for Girls or Balance Beams - Zehra Cirak

Greek Dances I - Simonne Jacquemard

Greek Dances II - Simonne Jacquemard

Muscle Like Metaphor Pulls Thin and Tough - Vivian Jokl

African Chess 1977 - Tessa Ransford

Between Hard Rocks and Savage Winds I Try - Vittoria Colonna

Rowing - Anne Sexton

The Swimmer - Sharon Olds

A Game of Ball - Muriel Rukeyser