King Scores With Basketball Book

Fayetteville resident Melissa King’s first book, “She’s Got Next,” hit bookstores nationwide on June. 9.

The book, published by Houghton Mifflin, is a non-fiction memoir about playing “pick-up” games, King said, although it’s “not exactly about basketball.” King said she has used the sport as an allegory for life and relationships with people.

She grew up playing basketball in central Arkansas, and continued playing in leagues and in various capacities through her 20s in Arkansas and Chicago.

King received a $30,000 advance for the book, which she has worked on part-time for about six years, she said.

She has been published in Sports Illustrated, Arkansas Times and the Chicago Reader, an alternative newspaper.

King is scheduled to sign copies of her book at Barnes & Noble in Rogers on July 16.