Hanif Abdurraqib contains multitudes. Poet, essayist, cultural critic, curator, dog parent; for all his roles and mounting accolades, he is charmed above all to be alive.
In his most recent book, There’s Always This Year, Abdurraqib reckons with the realization that he has lived beyond the timeline he had once imagined for himself. His upbringing was cut through with heartbreak - his mother died when he was 13, and he lost friends to suicide and drug overdoses. In the years before he “made it”, he spent time in jail and unhoused.
