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“When an author’s unmitigated brilliance shows up on every page, it’s tempting to skip a description and just say, Read this! Such is the case with this breathlessly powerful, deceptively breezy book of poetry.” —Booklist, Starred Review
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'." It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared. Abdurraqib uses touchstones from the world outside—from Marvin Gaye to Nikola Tesla to his neighbor's dogs—to create a mirror, inside of which every angle presents a new possibility.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib, a New York Times bestselling author is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His work has been published widely in major venues including The FADER, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker. Abdurraqib's books have been finalists for or winners of the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His most recent book is There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. Hanif is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.
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