Laterals

by Justin Carter

Sports and sports fandom are a window into the self in Justin Carter's second collection. Like its namesake football move, Laterals is a book where the idea of forward movement is possible, but always comes at a price. From dwelling on the fracturing of a familial past to the struggles-and joys-of parenthood, Carter uses sports as a way of understanding the world around him and of interrogating the self. From playing pickup basketball at dawn to sneaking onto the floor at a monster truck rally, Laterals is a collection where beauty and reflection can be found anywhere.

96 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2026

Reviews

[Jack Bullion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was struggling with what I wanted to say about this book (apart from giving it five stars) when a notification popped up on my phone reminding me that it had been awhile since I’d purchased a Cameo from former San Antonio Spur Bruce Bowen for my father and would my now-dead dad perhaps like another video featuring a different Spurs player? And the feeling I got was the one that so many of the poems of this book captured so successfully, which was that sports are both a wholly inadequate metaphor for life, and yet also somehow, simultaneously, the only metaphor for life.