We are proud to announce that Walter Mosley will be joining our editorial board. Mosley is the author of twenty-nine critically acclaimed books, which have been translated into twenty-one languages. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990 and include Black Betty, A Little Yellow Dog and Cinnamon Kiss, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. Mosley has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, an honor given for works that increase the appreciation and understanding of race in America, as well as a Grammy Award for his liner notes for Richard Pryor…And It’s Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968-1992). Mosley created with New York’s City College a publishing degree program aimed at young urban residents, the only such program in the country. He has served on the board of directors of the National Book Awards and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, currently serves on the boards of the Poetry Society of America and TransAfrica, and is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.

We also take this occasion to announce the creation of a sports department–the first in our magazine’s 143-year history–with Dave Zirin as correspondent. Zirin, who was Press Action’s 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, was called by Robert Lipsyte “the best young sportswriter in the United States.” He is a columnist for SLAM magazine and CNNSI.com, a regular contributor to The Nation and a frequent commentator for the Los Angeles Times. Zirin’s first book, What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States, has entered its second printing. He is also the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports. Zirin is a frequent contributor to ESPN’s Outside the Lines, ESPN Classic, the BBC’s Extratime and Democracy Now! Zirin will continue to write regularly for The Nation on the intersection of politics and sports.