The Poetry Project

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Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib, an African American man, with short, cropped black hair, is standing against a blue sky, and wearing a yellow and orange denim jacked with blue patterns printed on it. He is holding a bouquet of pink, rounded, long-stemmed flowers.
© Kate Sweeney

Hanif Abdurraqib is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024) was a New York Times Bestseller and longlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction. His previous book, A Little Devil In America (Random House, 2021) was a winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2021, Abdurraqib was named a MacArthur Fellow, and in 2024 was named a Windham-Campbell Prize recipient. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.