James Zug (born 1969) is an American writer. He is the author of six books.

His fiction has appeared in the anthology Stress City: A Big Book of Fiction By 51 DC Guys (Paycock Press, 2008) ISBN 978-0-931181-27-6. He also appeared in South Africa's Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Last Generation Under Apartheid (Ohio University, 2000) ISBN 978-0-89680-213-1.

Zug was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1969. He studied at Dartmouth College, where he captained the squash team, and later earned a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University.^[1]

Zug has written extensively on sports, culture, and history for publications including The New York Times,^[2] The Atlantic,^[3] Vanity Fair,^[4] Fast Company,^[5] Outside, The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast,^[6] and Tin House.^[7] He is a longtime senior writer for Squash Magazine^[8] and chairs the US Squash Hall of Fame Committee.

He is the author of several books, including Run to the Roar (2010), a history of the legendary squash program at Trinity College, for which Tom Wolfe contributed the foreword.^[9] Zug has been a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal and has written extensively for magazines and literary outlets.^[10] He also maintained a long-running blog for Vanity Fair.^[4]

His 2003 book, Squash: A History of the Game published by Scribner (Simon and Schuster, was the first comprehensive history of squash in the United States and featured a foreword by George Plimpton.^[11] It remains the best-selling squash book in the country. A revised and updated paperback edition was released in the fall of 2025,^[1] reflecting developments in the sport, including its inclusion in the Olympic Games.

Other works include American Traveler: The Life and Adventures of John Ledyard (2005)^[12] and Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear (2010, with Paul Assaiante).^[13]

• Squash: A History of the Game. Scribner(Simon & Schuster). 2025-12-16. ISBN 978-1-6680-8971-2.
• The Preserve (privately printed, 2004)
• American Traveler: The Life & Adventures of John Ledyard (Basic Books, 2005) ISBN 978-0-465-09405-9
• The Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard (editor; National Geographic Society) ISBN 978-0-7922-9347-7
• The Guardian: The History of South Africa's Extraordinary Anti-Apartheid Newspaper (Michigan State University Press and the University of South Africa Press, 2007) ISBN 978-0-87013-810-2
• The Long Conversation: 125 Years of Sidwell Friends School (privately printed, 2008) ^[14] ISBN 978-0-615-17854-7
• Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear (with Paul Assaiante; Penguin, 2010). ISBN 978-1-59184-364-1

• Official website
• SquashWord blog
• Squash Magazine Articles
• Run to The Roar website
• CRM Talks Speaker Series: James Zug
• Interview of James Zug, author of "Squash: A History of the Game"
• Profile in The Northwest Current (Washington, DC)
• Interview on New Books in History