WRITERS WORLD CUP

The U.S. Writers World Cup soccer team is made up of American novelists, playwrights, poets, and nonfiction writers. Founded in 2009, it is organized to take part in the Writers World Cup league, an initiative conceived of by the Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco and the former publisher Paolo Verri in 2005. Italy organized the first Writers’ League tournament in San Casciano dei Bagni, with England, Hungary, Italy, and Sweden taking part. The 2006 tournament in Florence saw the first appearance of the England Writers World Cup team. Since then, several other nations, including Germany, Holland, Norway, and Israel, have joined.

    Writers currently part of the U.S. squad include Daniel Alarcón, Michael Byers, Aleksandar Hemon, Peter Ho Davies, Peter Orner, Tom Vanderbilt, and Matt Weiland. The U.S. Writers World Cup team welcomes queries from potential new recruits.