On Trampolining

An essay from award-winning novelist and poet Rebecca Perry about the pursuit of success, the pain and pressure to get there, and failure—of the body, of the mind's ability to steer it, and of memory itself.
"A short, taut masterclass in poetic memoir."—Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers

At age ten, Rebecca Perry was the eleventh best trampolinist in the world. At fifteen, she retired her leotard. On Trampolining asks what it means to be "very good but not the best," how years of training and competing live on in an adult body, and how to rebuild a sense of self.

A trampolining competition must be neat and clean and silent, save for the rhythmic creaking of springs. A slight shift on the way down, a landing that is even slightly off the mark, can ricochet the body at unknown angles, magnify the mistake, and throw off the next landing. But the landing must inevitably happen. Trampolining, Perry writes, is complete exposure.

In adulthood, Perry recounts an athlete’s attempt at mastery of the body, reaching toward the limits of language, memory, and the physical self. Drawing on memories that range from the distorted to the piercingly vivid, she pieces together her lived experience of a body moving, and transforming, through time and space: How do athletes—especially young women—maintain autonomy over bodies demanded to perform? How do we master "the art of control when there is nothing to hold on to"?

On Trampolining is a book about the pursuit of success, the pain and pressure to get there, and failure—of the body, of the mind's ability to steer it, and of memory itself.

On Trampolining is part of the Undelivered Lectures series from Transit Books.