Writing Tools

Roy Peter Clark, Dan Jenkins, Buddy Martin

On April 18, The Poynter Institute concluded its third Sports Journalism Summit by giving its version of a lifetime achievement award. You can say it was "no contest."

The recipient was the legendary Dan Jenkins, a novelist who gave us "Semi-Tough," and a veteran columnist whose first love is college football, though his mistress is golf. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the written word was the raising of Sally Jenkins, author and sports columnist at The Washington Post, who shared her daddy's joy at Poynter in being so honored.

One of Dan's good friends is Buddy Martin, another veteran of sports journalism, and the man who is most responsible for the creation of the Sports Journalism Summit. Buddy has written a great piece about Dan Jenkins and the summit, which you can read here. 

Plans are underway to convene a fourth summit next spring, and to take a shortened version on the road -- maybe to Chicago. Sports journalism has long been a place where good writing -- the long and the short of it -- could be found. Dan Jenkins proves the craft can take care of you as a writer -- if you only take care of it.