March 3, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Hoop Muses
By The Next
Jackie is joined by journalist and author Kate Fagan to discuss her upcoming book, Hoop Muses: An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game.
It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. In this episode, host and The Next’s New York Liberty beat writer Jackie Powell is joined by journalist and author Kate Fagan, whose new book Hoop Muses: An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game is available now for pre-order and releases in just a few days, March 7.
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Kate and Jackie discuss the origins of the idea for the book, the process of finding illustrator Sophia Chang, and getting Seimone Augustus on board as an “insider” expert in the game and as a guide of sorts through the history of women’s basketball.
Kate on how the idea for the book came about:
You know, I wish I could say that there was one specific thought that coalesced. I remember I called my mom on a walk and I kind of talked her through what I wanted the book to be. And it was definitely born of the idea that a lot of the history of the game, the mythology of the game, the culture of the game, there hadn’t been any true investment poured into putting it all in one place and sharing it in the way that you could look at any men’s sport.
[For men’s sports] there’d been coffee table books and photographs, and you could buy limited edition prints of famous moments in history. [The idea] was definitely kind of like a convergence of my time at ESPN, and different things I’ve worked on. And feeling like, “you know what, maybe I’m gonna try this from a new angle.” What if we tried to do something really fun and poppy and exciting and telling a history but using an awesome Illustrator to help make it feel really fresh and new.
Kate on who she thinks the book will connect with the most:
When we were out pitching the book … we made it clear that we felt like this book would speak across generations. This isn’t a this isn’t a book for young kids because it’s illustrated. We made it clear that this was not a picture book. Obviously, there are pictures in it, but that’s not what it was. I think we had the language in the pitch deck that both a 13-year-old who’s just fallen in love with the game and an 80-year-old, who wasn’t a benefactor of Title IX, but always loved basketball, even if they never got to play it in the way they wanted. We thought the book would speak equally to across those generations.
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