Thomas DeLapp
Joe Niese isn’t your stereotypical librarian. When he finishes work as director of the Chippewa Falls Public Library, he goes home to write about sports.
An avid sports fan since childhood (something his older brother instilled in him), Niese collides his love of reading and learning with his passion for sports.
“I made my transition off the field and into writing in the early 2000s,” Niese shared. “My first article was in 2007, about a baseball player from the area, and I stumbled into books from there.”
Since then, he’s become a reliable sports biographer, writing nonfiction books like Zack Wheat: The Life of the Dodgers Hall of Famer and Gus Dorais: Gridiron Innovator, All-American, and Hall of Fame Coach.
Niese’s most recent touchdown book, though, was a bit different. Gridiron Grit is a fiction, middle-grade chapter book about a young footballer who struggles when he finds he is no longer the star player.
“It was quite a left turn” from nonfiction biography to middle-grade fiction, Niese said. “As my kids were reading more, I saw what they were reading, and as a librarian with books as part of my daily life, I wanted to try something different.”
Such a left turn, in fact, that the book, published by Jolly Fish Press, was published under a pseudonym: J.N. Kelly, to mark the divide between his nonfiction and fiction work.
““You know, in nonfiction, you’re relying on sources, but in fiction, it all comes from your head. It’s much more vulnerable, especially because I’m just beginning.””
“You know, in nonfiction, you’re relying on sources, but in fiction, it all comes from your head,” Niese said. “It’s much more vulnerable, especially because I’m just beginning.”
Gridiron Grit is part of a series by Jolly Fish called “In the Clutch,” where readers are tossed into a “do-or-die moment” in sports before flashing back to show the young athlete’s journey to that pivotal, game-changing play.
The stresses of a ticking clock in a tense game weren’t lost on Niese: given six weeks to produce the 5000-word book, he said it was a real test of his writing — “every word counts.”
Niese knows that persistence is key. Over 15 years ago, he started working on and off on his first fiction book, another middle-grade novel about baseball. Now, after Gridiron Grit, his second novel will be published in the spring. Niese is happy to share that Eva Paulus — a local young artist known for her work on Volume One’s “The Rear End” with her dad, Mike — will be designing the cover art.
“It’s great to work with her. Honestly, sometimes I wonder who is hanging on to whose coattails,” Niese said, laughing.
Writing about sports, he said, is not just important for him — a librarian at heart, Niese wrote Gridiron Grit for the reluctant young reader; a sports lover that hasn’t yet found something that grabs them.
“You gotta find those books that interest you, and they will take you elsewhere,” he said. “You can read about sports all the time, but maybe something will stick and that leads you to read something else.”
His advice rings true for readers of any age.
“You have to read what you enjoy,” Niese said. “I just hope this is a book that a reluctant reader can pick up and blossom into their joy of reading.”
Gridiron Grit, other books, and more information about Niese can be found at joeniese.com