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For the second time in two years, a Columbus poet is on former President Barack Obama’s reading list.
Poet and writer Hanif Abdurraqib, who grew up in Columbus and currently lives in the city, released his new book, “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” earlier this year, and former President Obama said he opened it this summer.
The book is a “lyrical, historical and emotionally rich exploration” of role models, success and excellence, focusing on Abdurraqib’s experiences as a child witnessing a “golden era” of basketball played by LeBron James in the 1990s and his lifelong love of the sport, according to the book’s description on Penguin Random House’s website.
This is not the first time the former president has noticed Abdurraqib’s work. His 2021 book, “A Little Devil in America,” made Obama’s 2022 summer reading list.
Abdurraqib grew up on the east side of Columbus and graduated from Beechcroft High School in 2001. He then attended Capital University in Bexley and studied marketing in 2002 and 2003.
He began writing at the lowest point in his life, around 2004 or 2005, when he was evicted from his home and forced to sleep in a warehouse, showering at the YMCA during the day and writing at night, The Dispatch previously reported.
He began writing professionally by covering Columbus and writing album reviews for zines before deciding to pursue poetry after an editor said his writing was too poetic and aimless. His big break came in 2017 with his poetry collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, which was named the best book of 2017 by a number of national news and literary outlets.
Since then, Abdurraqib has been awarded a MacArthur “genius grant” and a mural featuring his face, the People’s Mural of Columbus at 1450 East Main Street, was completed that same year.
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