3-2-1 Spotlight on FOR THE WIN: Poems Celebrating Phenomenal Athletes
Front cover of FOR THE WIN: Poems Celebrating Phenomenal Athletes (Lerner Publishing Group)
DiverseVerse is starting an immersive, to-the-point new column, 3-2-1 Spotlight highlighting the-new-and-upcoming along with the-unique-enduring-and-time-tested poetic works by diverse creators.
We hope you enjoy these pithy perspectives by our guest poets!
Welcome to Irene Latham and Charles Waters, our Spotlight guest poets and anthology creators!
Spotlight on the upcoming anthology, FOR THE WIN, from creator duo, Irene Latham and Charles Waters in 3-2-1…
3 - Three Verbs that Describe FOR THE WIN.
BOUNCE - We bounced around a lot of athlete names before settling on a collection featuring all contemporary athletes from a wide variety of sports.
ZOOM - Poets zoom in on a meaningful moment from each athlete’s career—including Juan Soto’s father predicting on his tenth birthday that one day he’d play in the World Series and Simone Biles coming back to compete after getting the twisties during the Tokyo Olympics.
STRETCH - We stretched ourselves to the limit as anthologists to create this book by working on various drafts with super-patient poets and editors to make, what we hope, is a fun, unique reading experience. Also, before Lerner Publishing Group accepted the book proposal, we had one last draft called the “Hail Mary.” It was our last, desperate attempt to get the book proposal accepted—and it worked!
2 - Two Facts about the Anthology.
FOR THE WIN has its origins in an idea Charles had in 2007! It was initially going to be an anthology focused on famous sports moments from the past. Example: Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in an NBA game on March 2, 1962. It then became 26 poems written by Charles on sports in general. After collaborating with Irene, it reverted to an anthology highlighting particular sports moments–this time, well-known or not as well-known–in an athlete’s career.
This anthology includes poems written by us and by the following superstar poets: Jaime Adoff, Lacresha Berry, Jay Brazeau, JaNay Brown-Wood, Tanita S. Davis, Mariana Dominé, Leah Henderson, Naaz Khan, Nancy Tupper Ling, Guadalupe García McCall, Edna Cabcabin Moran, Darius Phelps, Glenis Redmond, Kim Rogers, René Saldaña Jr., Laura Shovan, Sarah Grace Tuttle, Kao Kalia Yang, and Anita Yasuda.
1 - One Takeaway for Readers of FOR THE WIN.
We hope these poems inspire readers to push through obstacles, celebrate successes, and understand that failures are a part of life. And, just like the athletes featured, if we keep working toward our goals and also maintain our mental and physical health, we can experience success—not just in sports, but in all areas of our lives.
Many thanks to Irene Latham and Charles Waters for offering insights on their middle-grade anthology, FOR THE WIN; Poems Celebrating Phenomenal Athletes. Look for its release in March, 2026.
FOR THE WIN poets and anthology creator team, Charles Waters and Irene Latham.
About Irene Latham & Charles Waters
Irene Latham and Charles Waters, also known as I & C Construction Company, have been creating books together since 2015. Their published titles include two previous anthologies: The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets and If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility. Other titles include Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, which was named an NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor book; Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z; African Town, winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction; and Be a Bridge. They want you to know that curating an anthology is a lot like participating in sports. It’s taken years of dedication, sacrifice, and training. They’ve faced strikeouts and setbacks along the way. They share this recent book achievement with their coaches and teammates—the poets whose work appears in these pages—and look forward to the next challenge. Find them online at irenelatham.com and charleswaterspoetry.com.
