Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from
Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN
American, and various other journals. His essays and music
criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New
Yorker, and The New York Times. His first full length poetry
collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was released in June 2016
from Button Poetry. It was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer
Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.
With Big Lucks, he released a limited edition chapbook, Vintage
Sadness, in summer 2017 (you cannot get it anymore and he is very
sorry.) His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until
They Kill Us, was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and
was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah
Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The
Chicago Tribune, among others. He released Go Ahead In The Rain:
Notes To A Tribe Called Quest with University of Texas press in
February 2019. The book became a New York Times Bestseller, was a
finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National
Book Award. His second collection of poems, A Fortune For Your
Disaster, was released in 2019 by Tin House, and won the 2020
Lenore Marshall Prize. In 2021, he released the book A Little Devil
In America with Random House, which was a finalist for the National
Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the The
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. The book
won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and
the Gordon Burn Prize. Hanif is a graduate of Beechcroft High
School.
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery
Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book
Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a Carnegie Medal winner, a
two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award
Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors.
He's also the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People's
Literature. His many books include All American Boys (co-written
with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black
Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (
Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the
Meantime; Ain't Burned All the Bright; My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.
(with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery
Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in
Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at
JasonWritesBooks.com.
Eve L. Ewing is the award-winning author of several books,
including the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the
nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School
Closings on Chicago's South Side, and a novel for young readers,
Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of
the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has
also written several comics for Marvel Comics, most notably the
Ironheart series. Dr. Ewing co-wrote a story with Janelle Monáe as
a contributor to the collection of Black queer Afrofuturist fiction
The Memory Librarian, and she also co-wrote the young adult graphic
novel Change the Game with Colin Kaepernick. She was born in
Chicago, where she lives and teaches.
* 2018 "12 best books to give this holiday season" --TODAY
(Elizabeth Acevedo)* Best Books of 2017 --Rolling Stone (2018),
NPR, Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Vol. 1
Brooklyn, CBC, Stereogum, National Post, Entropy, Heavy, Book Riot,
Chicago Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review, Michigan Daily*
American Booksellers Association (ABA) 'December 2017 Indie Next
List Great Reads'* Midwest Indie Bestseller"With the depth and
versatility of an immensely talented poet, and the strong
perceptive wit of a cultural critic, Hanif Abdurraqib shows us in
this collection of essays his tremendous ability to bend language
to his will. For him, like it is for many of us, music is an
entrance into a larger discussion of our emotions, and our
collective cultural understanding... This book taught me something
fresh about humanity with every turn of the page, and it will stay
with me for a long time to come."
--Matt Keliher, Subtext (Minneapolis, MN)"These are smart and
thoughtful pieces, some about life as viewed through the lens of
culture, such as his experience at a Carly Rae Jepsen show and his
thoughts on attending concerts in the wake of the shootings in
Paris. And some are about his experience as a Black man living in
America."
--Liberty Hardy, Book Riot
"10 OF THE BEST ESSAY COLLECTIONS" (Feb 24, 2023)"The award-winning
poet, essayist, and culture critic's debut essay collection... was
such an iconic first attempt, the book will be receiving a second
act through a new hardback edition out this November (2022)."
--Kay Wicker, theGrio
"20 Black poets to know this National Black Poetry Day""With
compassion, wit, and a bit of hopeful punk nihilism, these essays
use music--punk, emo, hip-hop, and pop--to explore America from
Ferguson to Chicago to the 'burbs."
--Chris Lee, Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI)"I loved, like
beyond all measure, Hanif Abdurraqib's They Can't Kill Us Until
They Kill Us. It's a collection of essays about music and culture
that are written with such insight and tenderness that I read it in
a day and immediately read the whole thing again... It's
spectacular."
--Samantha Irby, in The New York Times (May 10, 2018)"Abdurraqib is
just phenomenal. I don't know what else to tell you. These
sentences make me feel how I feel watching Simone Biles on a vault,
or Shoma Uno on the ice, or anyone who is just impossibly fucking
stellar at whatever they're doing."
--Bryan Washington on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us in The
A.V. Club
"Bryan Washington's 10 favorite books of the decade""I am always so
moved by Abdurraqib's lyrical writing, which to me seems to occupy
a genre of celebratory elegy that only he is capable of inhabiting.
He weaves cultural criticism and personal memoir in such a
beautiful way, making the two modes feel inevitably and
inextricably bound."
--Jonny Sun, on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us in The
Week
"Jonny Sun recommends 6 emotionally powerful books""[Abdurraqib's]
ode to 'Trap Queen' as the new 'I Will Always Love You' first
caught my attention. I was instantly hooked."
--Questlove on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us in Vulture
"Questlove's 10 Favorite Books""'Brief Notes on Staying, ' an essay
in Hanif Abdurraqib's 2017 book, inspired 'PLEASE STAY' (Phoebe
Bridgers and Julien Baker lend vocals on the track). It's about
losing people and being exhausted, but needing to find a way to get
through life."
--Lucy Dacus on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us in Vanity
Fair
"Hanif Abdurraqib's music writing possesses a singular, impossible
magic--he cracks open the very personal nature of fandom with
empathy and skepticism in equal measure."
--Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism By A
Living Female Rock Critic and Night Moves"Abdurraqib bridges the
bravado and bling of praise with the blood and tears of elegy."
--Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past And Future
Assassin and To Float In The Space Between"With They Can't Kill Us
Until They Kill Us, I felt like [Hanif Abdurraqib] encouraged more
compassion out of me with every essay."
--Lucy Dacus, The Creative Independent
"Songwriter Lucy Dacus on the continued evolution of her creative
practice, understanding your parents, navigating online spaces, and
what it means to write with intention."
"Rhythmic repetition makes for roaring passages that beg to be read
aloud, but for all his poetic muscularity, Abdurraqib understands
the value of linguistic economy."
--Pete Tosiello, The Washington Post"Hanif Abdurraqib was the
writer I needed more than anything in the world at this particular
moment in time... an expansive portrait of the inner life of a man
in relation to music and the world around him and where in that
world to glean joy, and it's rendered in sentences that are so
beautiful they make the hairs stand up on your arms. Seriously, you
have to read this right the hell now!"
--Rufus Hickok, Ordinary Times
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)
"Through his poetic ruminations on that out-of-placeness and the
way in which he ties in American culture, I feel less alone.... And
when he talks about what the band [Fall Out Boy] meant to him and a
friend he lost, I dare you not to shed a tear."
--Jeff Boyd, author of The Weight, in Electric Literature
"7 Novels About People Feeling Out of Place""Despite all of the
shameless commercialism, an unexpected upside of emo nostalgia is
the influx of thought-provoking books about the genre's history and
resurgence. The best among them are Hanif Abdurraqib's They Can't
Kill Us Until They Kill Us, a poetic collection of essays..."
--Kevin Kearney, Inside Hook
"What We Talk About When We Talk About Emo""They Can't Kill Us
Until They Kill Us is by turns incisive, exciting, and insightful.
It is a musical inventory of America's past, present, and future...
Abdurraqib writes about things we know in ways we don't, and
readers are sure to learn something if they stop and listen to this
vital voice."
--Rebecca Valley, Drizzle Review
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)"One of the most
vital books on music I read this year was the critic and poet Hanif
Abdurraqib's essay collection They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill
Us, which spoke so eloquently to the importance of making space for
dreaming, laughing, and, of course, listening to joyful music in
troubled times."
--Lindsay Zoladz, Slate"The Ohio poet/critic digs deep into what it
means to be American in our moment -- and how much music has to do
with it."
--Rolling Stone, The Best Music Books of 2018, (by Jon Dolan & Kory
Grow & Rob Sheffield & Andy Greene & Will Hermes)"This is an
exceptional book of essays, and hearing it in Abdurraqib's voice
places an extra star on something that already has all the stars...
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, which is probably why I could listen to
him read me a car manual and I'd hang onto every word."
--Jamie Canaves, BookRiot
"9 Recent Audiobooks Narrated By the Author That Your Ears Will
Want To Hear."
"The spoken word poet's pieces are deep, uncensored analyses of
topics ranging from music to death, from culture to sports,
saturated with the weight of his memories and experiences... There
is something precious in how Abdurraqib's writing transcends
changes in emotion and in tone to flow so seamlessly from one topic
to the next... In his writing, there is no separation between art
and life. Each informs and intertwines with the other."
--Allison J. Scharmann, The Harvard Crimson
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)
"Abdurraqib writes about the music he holds dear, and the
experiences which have embedded this music in his life, with such
lyricism that the writing nears music itself--and his love of the
subject is palpable."
--Arianna Rebolini, Buzzfeed, Best Nonfiction Books Of 2017"To say
Hanif Abdurraqib writes about the music that's the soundtrack to
our lives is an understatement... Abdurraqib is taking the music
many already enjoy and asking us to consider its more profound
implications."
--Mandy Shunnarah, PANK Magazine
"The Personal, the Political, and the Musical: An Interview with
Hanif Abdurraqib on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us"
"An impactful and intensely readable collection of essays about
music, culture, race--and where they intersect."
--Amy Stave, Changing Hands Bookstore (Arizona)"They Can't Kill Us
Until They Kill Us critiques our culture and politics through the
lens of music. Lyrical but poignant, Abdurraqib's essays make sharp
observations about current events and pop culture as well as his
experiences being black and Muslim in the US. A wholly refreshing,
insightful, and powerful collection."
--Jarry Lee, BuzzFeed, "9 New Books We Think You'll Love"
"Abdurraqib is unflaggingly curious about the salvation that music
brings, and the, intentional or not, consequences of
listening."
--Lesley Jenike, Ploughshares
"Music, Violence, and Joy in They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill
Us""Abdurraqib explores America through its popular culture."
--Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, 2017 Favorites
"Life's poetry speaks in exaltation and profanity, triumph and
cruelty, Michael Jordan and Carly Rae Jepsen. In this lyrical mosh
pit, Hanif Abdurraqib uses music as a lens to meditate on the
splendor and the squalor of the American experience with a brutal
honesty borne of an uncompromising, punk rock sincerity. After all,
this country was founded on the dance floor."
--Steven Warren, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY)
"There are times where Abdurraqib's writing seems to physically
overflow with emotion and urgency."
--Kylie Maslen, Kill Your Darlings
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)
"Hanif's essays live at the intersection of music, race, and class.
He blends the personal, the political, and the musical in beautiful
ways. This was one of those books I never wanted to end."
--Mandy Shunnarah, Off the Beaten Shelf
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)
"Excellent collection of essays on music, mortality and being black
in America... magnetic and poignant, and tinged with
heartache."
--Nikesh Shukla, The Guardian"It would be a mistake to favor the
writings on music over his other, excellent observations,
recollections, and personal reflections, as they all simmer
together and effect each other."
--Douglas Riggs, Bank Square Books (Mystic, CT)"[Abdurraqib]
invites us to acknowledge the unbridgeable gaps formed by centuries
of history, to observe with respect the moments that don't include
us all, and to cherish all the more the opportunities we have for
empathy, which bring us as close as we can get to harmony."
--Aida Amoako, Prospect"Abdurraqib is concerned with life, with
actuality and experience: he's an artist in troubled times; may his
writing shine some light on our own paths."
--emilio Jesús Taiveaho, Carolina Quarterly
"Cartographies of Music, Refuge, and Survival" A Review of They
Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
"Music nerds, rejoice! There are few critics alive today that can
talk about music and culture with the same level of adoration and
encyclopedic knowledge... [They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
is] ridiculously good."
--Gina Mei, Shondaland (28 Books You'll Want on Your Nightstand
This Fall)"Masterful essays on music and what it means to be a fan
of music by one of this generation's strongest and most important
voices. From punk rock to hip hop to Bruce Springsteen, this
collection runs the gamut. It made me seriously re-evaluate Carly
Rae Jepsen."
--Jason Jefferies, Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh, NC)"As expansive in
scope as it is rich in content... His writing is alive and
breathing, criticism infused with stories, lived experience and
emotion. For Abdurraqib, it's never just a song, never just an
artist; music is a lens through which he sees the whole world."
--Asif Becher, The Michigan Daily
(Review of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us)"With a voice that
rings clear off the page, Abdurraqib is an accomplished wordsmith,
whose reflections on pop culture are intensely personal, political
and utterly compelling."
--CBC (Canada)"Abdurraqib will make you think critically about
music and the culture it influences, and his thoughts will stay
with you long after you've tunneled through... his wonderful
book."
--Gabriela Tully Claymore, Stereogum, Recommended Reading
2017"Poignant and important. Abdurraqib offers a perspective that
connects music, art, and memory, with the political realities of
our time."
--Angela Ledgerwood, Esquire, Best Books of 2017"Establishes
Abdurraqib as a major rock critic--polished and deft and original
in a searchingly unpolished way."
--Robert Christgau, Barnes and Noble Review"Funny, painful,
precise, desperate, and loving throughout. Not a day has sounded
the same since I read him."
--Greil Marcus, Village Voice "Essential, gripping reading."
--Tobias Carroll, Pitchfork"A much-needed collection for our time.
[Abdurraqib] has proven to be one of the most essential voices of
his generation."
--Juan Vidal, NPR"A collection of death-defying protest songs for
the Black Lives Matter era."
--Walton Muyumba, Chicago Tribune, Best books of 2017"Challenging
and lyrical, his writing delivers compelling observations in
bite-sized pieces, allowing you to digest the deeper ramifications
of his insights."
--Frannie Jackson, Paste, The 20 Best Nonfiction Books of 2017"It's
a little bit of comfort when you think about it, that... Abdurraqib
has provided us with an essay collection that might help make some
small sense of what's going on."
--Vol. 1 Brooklyn, 'Hanif Abdurraqib's Great American Essay
Collection'"Abdurraqib's poetic sentence makes me see fireworks in
a new way. It ingeniously reverses their motion: Instead of
tendrils of light exploding outward, overwriting the darkness,
these fireworks gather the darkness into themselves. They are like
teenagers stuffing their pockets with candy, ravenous for the
night. Violent illuminations arriving, out of nowhere, to hoard the
darkness. That would be something worth staring at."
--Sam Anderson, New York Times Magazine"Abdurraqib unites familiar
sounds with fresh observations about music and the state of
contemporary America... essential, gripping reading."
--Tobias Carroll, Pitchfork, 16 Favorite Music Books of
2017"Abdurraqib places the reader in front of the performer and
commands them to see beyond the music, to glimpse the societal
impact of popular performers and indie heroes alike, and how they
reflect the culture that bears them."
--Paul Haney, Pleiades Magazine"Abdurraqib's essay collection on
the convergence of identity politics, music, sports and culture
feels important."
--National Post, The Best Books of the Year (2017)"This tome stands
as a bold statement for a great writer and a complete breath of
life from a rare thinker."
--Erick Mertz, New Noise Magazine
"One of the stand-out essay collections of 2017."
--Alyse Bensel, The Los Angeles Review"Abdurraqib writes facing his
people... and draws the rest of us to the circle's edge with his
discerning eye."
--Julia Oller, Columbus Dispatch"As powerful and touching as
anything I've read this year, and Abdurraqib has emerged as the
Ta-Nehisi Coates of popular culture."
--James Mann, The Big Takeover"In his first essay collection,
Abdurraqib... writes about America through the prism of its
music."
--Jenny Shank, The Dallas Morning News, "5 enticing fall books
we're eager to read""A penetrating and profoundly timely collection
of essays. It is music writing at its sharpest, most perceptive,
and most urgent... Most remarkable, perhaps, is Abdurraqib's
ability to perceive and define connections between his subjects,
himself, and the fractured, complicated culture in which we
live."
--Foreword Reviews (starred)"Abdurraqib's essay collection is
mesmerizing and deeply perceptive... filled with honesty, providing
the reader with the sensation of seeing the world through fresh
eyes."
--Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Highly recommended."
--Library Journal (starred)"Abdurraqib writes with uninhibited
curiosity and insight about music and its ties to culture and
memory, life and death, on levels personal, political, and
universal."
--Booklist (starred)"In a year that's felt like a century, hope is
hard to come by. Hanif Abdurraqib doesn't promise us anything
beyond brilliant flashes of light in a dark and complicated world,
but he does it with such generosity, such grace that we might not
deserve it."
--Jaime Fountaine, Fanzine, READ THE INTERVIEW HERE"A towering work
full of insightful observations about everything from the legacy of
Nina Simone to the music of Bruce Springsteen... a powerful work
about art, society, and the perspective through which its author
regards both."
--Tobias Carroll, Electric Literature, READ THE INTERVIEW HERE"A
joyful requiem--emphasis on joyful. Abdurraqib has written a guide
for the living as well as a memorial for those we have lost."
--David Breithaupt, Los Angeles Review of Books, "My Small America:
An Interview with Hanif Abdurraqib""Moving seamlessly from Fall Out
Boy to Nina Simone, from Bruce Springsteen to the death of Mike
Brown, Abdurraqib centers this masterful collection of essays not
only around music and the way it's shaped and carried him through
life, but the tiny sparks that help us survive."
--Jaime Fountaine, Fanzine, More Than Love & Joy: A Conversation
with Hanif Abdurraqib"Some of the most dynamic writing about music
I've ever read. The way Abdurraqib ties the artists, concerts, and
music culture he is covering into current events can make you care
about music you have never even heard."
--Robert Sindelar, Board President, American Booksellers
Association (ABA)"These are essays about music, but also about
culture, race, and life in America today."
--Rebecca Hussey, Book Riot, 20 Great Essay Collections from
2017"Read this, then listen back--you're sure to hear something
new."
--Jinnie Lee and Maura M. Lynch, W Magazine"Erudite writing from an
author struggling to find meaning through music."
--Kirkus"Certain writers can take a pop song or musician as their
subject and turn what they write into a stunning evocation of some
aspect of society. That's very much the case with Hanif Abdurraqib,
and in this new collection he covers everything from the Columbus
punk scene to Chance the Rapper, coming up with stunning
observations along the way."
--Vol. 1 Brooklyn"Uses [seemingly random moments] to try and
explore some of the most difficult questions about race, violence,
and prejudice facing Americans, specifically Americans of color,
today."
--Sadie Trombetta, Bustle
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