Former New York Times sportswriter and best-selling young adult fiction writer, Robert Lipsyte, has released his latest book, An Accidental Sportswriter. The book chronicles the story of how Robert became a writer.  Many years ago, Lipsyte answered an ad in the New York Times for a summer job, he never expected to turn out to be “copy boy” in the sports department. He wasn’t even a sports fan, but he has eventually become one of the most well known sports writers ever. Robert currently lives on Shelter Island with his wife, Lois B. Morris, who is also an author.

KDH: You are a rarity in the sense that you were a sports writer, who wasn’t a sports fan. Should journalists always try to write about topics that don’t interest them?

Robert Lipsyte: What I wasn’t interested in was the outcomes of the games. I didn’t care who won or lost. I wasn’t thrilled to go to games for free. I was interested in seeing how sports could be a window into everything else: I looked at sports as part of America, masculinity in America, the way people are adopted as heroes, how people developed dreams for themselves and came in contact with interesting figures.

KDH: What made you finally fall in love with sports?

RL: It cycled. I worked for the New York Times as a sports writer from 1957 until 1971, and then in 1971, I quit. I wanted to devote more time to writing fiction, which I did. For the last 20 years, I wrote fiction. Then, I did some television in the last 10 years. I always somehow went back to sports. I didn’t know what it was, other than the sense that sports relates to everything. I love journalism, which is a way for a shy person to go up to strangers and ask seemingly embarrassing question. Sports were a good entrance into that conversation.

KDH: Do you have a favorite athlete of all time?

RL: I have a few. Obviously, Muhammad Ali was very important to my career, especially in terms of early stories that got me a lot of attention and on the front page. Also, for me, Bobby Kane is the most important figure in the 20^th century. Third, Lance Armstrong is a major inspiration for me. Lance Armstrong and I share one thing- we have the same kind of cancer and he went on to do the Tour de France. There are a couple of hills on Shelter Island that I bike on and when I don’t think that I can pedal all the way to the top, I chant to myself, “Lance Armstrong! Lance Armstrong!” and I always manage to get my bike to the top. We have actually met a few times. He is an interesting and tough cookie.

KDH: What did you want to be when you were a kid? Ever dream of becoming a professional athlete?

RL: I never wanted to be anything except for a writer. It probably helped that I was a fat kid and unhappy with myself. People always say that the best thing for a writer is an unhappy childhood because you can create a world in which you are a master of whatever happens. In the fiction I would write as a child, the skinny people always died horribly. But then, I lost weight at 14 [by mowing lawns one summer], to my greatest pleasure.

KDH: What do you love most about Shelter Island?

RL: Shelter Island is the most perfect place in the world. It is quieter than most of the world. There is also a wonderful sense of community- people really help and connect with one another. I go back and forth to Manhattan, but I spend most of my time on Shelter Island.

KDH: Do you like the isolation of living on an island?

RL: Yeah. Islands are different. There is a sense of exclusion from the rest of the world and inclusion from the small area knowing each other and that is wonderful and powerful and I think that is the island mentality. When it comes to Manhattan, I am also technically living on a second island, only it is a much different kind of island than Shelter Island.

KDH: Do you have a favorite book?

RL: A novel that came out last year, called The Ask, written by my son, Sam Lipsyte.

* To purchase An Accidental Sportswriter, please go to www.amazon.com or Bookhamptons locations.