Jonathan Vankin

Experience

JONATHAN VANKIN is a veteran sportswriter and winner of two New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) awards for sports feature writing at Worcester Magazine — one for a feature on the big dreams of Worcester teenage boxers at local boxing gyms; the second for an in-depth profile of a Worcester high school baseball player drafted by the Red Sox, and his journey to Arizona to play in the Red Sox farm system.

Vankin then served as a sportswriter and editor at the Daily Yomiuri, the English-language edition of the world's largest-circulation daily newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun in Tokyo, Japan. For the Yomiuri, Vankin covered the Olympics, the World University Games, pro baseball including the Japan Series and several All-Star games, Grand Sumo basho, professional boxing and numerous other sports.

Vankin has covered sports and authored sports features on a freelance basis for numerous publications including Newsweek, L.A. Weekly, East Bay Express, Silicon Valley Metro (archived), and California Local.

He has also covered high school sports including baseball, basketball, wrestling and lacrosse for the Beacon Communications chain of newspapers in the Greater Boston area. 

As a sportswriter for Heavy.com, Vankin focuses on MLB, NFL, and NBA coverage primarily, but also covers boxing with live round-by-round commentary for major fights, NHL, cricket, golf and Olympic sports. 

His work in other journalism genres has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and Wired.

Education

Vankin earned a degree in philosophy from Brandeis University, and attended the Professional Writing and Publishing program at Emerson College.