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Hanif Abdurraqib is an incisive poet, accomplished essayist, and versatile cultural critic. His acclaimed poetry collections include The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (2016), a raw meditation on the dangers of being young and Black in the American Midwest, and A Fortune for Your Disaster (2019), which explores the themes of loss and rebuilding after heartbreak. Music aficionados may know Abdurraqib best for his essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, a modern cultural touchstone that led NPR to herald him as “one of the most essential voices of his generation.” His follow-ups include Go Ahead in the Rain (2019), an homage to the seminal rap group A Tribe Called Quest, and National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance (2021). His latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, straddles and defies literary genres. Publishers Weekly lauds: “The narrative works as if by alchemy, forging personal anecdotes, sports history, and cultural analysis into a bracing contemplation of the relationship between sports teams and their communities.”
