Pretend the Ball Is Named Jim Crow is superb. This is the star treatment Negro League baseball has always deserved. Hooks Tinker's press row seat and Josh Gibson's storied life provide the perfect points of view for this intimate examination of Black life between the bases. Dorian Hairston winds up and delivers inning after inning of masterfully crafted historical poems with an insider's view of the truth that lets the reader swing at a Satchel Paige fastball, celebrate a Gibson home run, and witness a love for the game that sometimes failed to love you back. If it's the bottom of the ninth, the bases are loaded, and you're up to bat, you'll want this book in your hands.

--Frank X Walker, author of A is for Affrilachia and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York

Dorian Hairston's Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow: The Story of Josh Gibson is more than just a poetry collection. It's a tribute to the enduring spirit of Black American athletes who faced and overcame adversity. By weaving together the worlds of baseball and poetry, Hairston has created a powerful narrative that resonates beyond the baseball diamond and the page.

-- "BNN"

(A)n inventive and engaging book of persona poems, detailing the life of Negro League power hitter and trailblazer Joshua Gibson.

-- "Still: The Journal"

Dorian Hairston's poems in Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow should be required reading for everyone, especially those who strive to outlaw the concepts of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in education and everyday life. . . . From one poem to the next, the stunning collection is a crash course in baseball's past and Jim Crow, giving voice to a voiceless generation of African Americans, including Josh Gibson.

--Constance Alexander, Northern Kentucky Tribune

Winner of the 2024 Twin Bill Book Prize for Best Baseball Poetry Book

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Pub date: 2024-02-06

Length: 118 pages