In a poem by this author, the speaker says that neither “the hunger in / our thin bellies” nor “the threat of white / snow” could stop the central group from playing the title sport. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this author of “Why We Play Basketball.” In an autobiographical novel by this author, Junior drains a game-winning three-point shot for Reardan High School, for which this author played basketball in real life.
ANSWER: Sherman Alexie (the novel is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
[10h] Native American poet Natalie Diaz played basketball for Old Dominion University before writing this poetry collection, whose title character “lived in our basement and sacrificed our parents / every morning.”
ANSWER: When My Brother Was an Aztec
[10e] In an ode written for ESPN The Magazine, Natalie Diaz wrote from the perspective of a famous soccer player from this country. The epigraph for that poem comes from this country’s national epic, The Lusiads.
ANSWER: Portugal [or the Portuguese Republic, or República Portuguesa] (the poem is titled "Seven," and is about Cristiano Ronaldo.)
<Darren Petrosino, American Literature>