Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport 1988–2004

Winner for Reference and Anthology 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards

The literary magazine Sport burst onto the scene in 1988, with a first issue featuring outstanding work by a group of new writers who would go on to be some of the biggest names in New Zealand literature, including Elizabeth Knox, Jenny Bornholdt, Barbara Anderson, Anne Kennedy, Damien Wilkins and Nigel Cox. Sport 1  also featured established stars like Bill Manhire, Keri Hulme and Vincent O’'Sullivan.

Sport has gone on to publish an invigorating list of celebrated writers and new discoveries; Emily Perkins and Catherine Chidgey are just two writers who first appeared in print in Sport’'s pages.

Great Sporting Moments is a little different from a conventional 'best of'’. Greatest hits like Emily Perkins'’ ‘'Not Her Real Name'’ and Bill Manhire’'s '‘My Sunshine'’ are here. So are hard-to-find gems like an autobiographical essay by Owen Marshall and a story of an infernal encounter in Venice by Elizabeth Knox. True to Sport’'s mission, so is an exciting collection of stories, poems and essays by the yet-to-be-celebrated.

Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport Magazine 1988––2004 defines the most exciting and creative era in New Zealand’'s literary history. It is also an entertaining and unpredictable reading experience that provides clues to what might happen next.

'If you buy any collection this holiday, this should be the one.' —LeafSalon

'How does one review over 500 pages of sheer delight?' —Isa Moynihan, Takahe

'Even if you are of only slightly literary bent, you'll still find lots to admire in this handsome book.'  —North & South

Damien Wilkins is the author of many novels, including The Miserables, which won the NZ Book Award for Fiction; Chemistry, which was published in NZ by VUP and internationally by Granta Books and Allen & Unwin, and Delirious, which won the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. His writing for television includes episodes of Duggan and The Insider'’s Guide to Happiness. He was a founding editor of Sport, and is now Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.