Hanif Abdurraqib, author portrait
© Kendra Bryant

Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant and the author of There's Always This Year, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the National Books Critics Cricle Award; A Little Devil in America, winner of the Carnegie Medal and a National Book Award finalist; The Crown Ain't Worth Much; They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us; Go Ahead in the Rain; and A Fortune for Your Disaster, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.
There's Always This Year

Books

There's Always This Year

What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2025-26

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 291 programs and their title selections from publicly available sources, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2025-26. We will continue to update this

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2026 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2026! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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Register for the 2026 Penguin Random House First-Year Experience® Conference Author Events!

Penguin Random House Author Events at the 45th Annual First-Year Experience® Conference February 15-18, 2026 Seattle, Washington Hyatt Regency Seattle Click Here to RSVP A complimentary meal and a limited number of books will be available to attendees. Each event will also be followed by an author signing. Interested in hosting one of these authors at

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Videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference are now available

We’re pleased to share videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference. Whether you weren’t able to join us at the conference or would simply like to hear the talks again, please take a moment to view the clips below.   Penguin Random House Author Breakfast Monday, February 17th, 7:15 – 8:45 am PST   This

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year

A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America.   Longlisted for the National Book Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award   5:00 You will surely forgive me if I begin

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