“When the U.S. team went on its historic run to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002, I was thirteen years old. Each game in that run - the astonishing victory against Portugal, the resilient win over Mexico, even the gutsy but unlucky effort against the Germans - propelled me to push my other athletic interests aside and focus only on soccer.”

American writer, poet and scholar

Clint Smith is an American writer, poet, and scholar. He is best known for How the Word Is Passed, which became a number one New York Times best seller and won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. He has also published two poetry collections, Counting Descent in 2016 and Above Ground in 2023. His work spans nonfiction and poetry, with writing that has drawn wide recognition in both forms.