Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib

Poet, essayist, and music critic

Hanif Abdurraqib is a New York Times bestselling poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Abdurraqib was recently named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. His latest book, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, is a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction. He was named guest curator-at-large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) beginning in January 2021, and he is the host of the new Sonos podcast “Object of Sound.”

Mr. Abdurraqib’s poetry has been published in PEN American, MuzzleVinyl, and other journals. His essays and criticism have been published in The New YorkerPitchforkThe New York Times, and Fader. He is the author of the poetry collections, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much and A Fortune for Your Disaster, and the essay collections They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us and Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest.