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Hanif Abdurraqib on "There's Always This Year" with Jason Reynolds

Presented by Mahogany Books

Mahogany Books is thrilled to host a special evening with author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib and national bestselling author Jason Reynolds.

About the book: "There's Always Next Year"

A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, LeBron James—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America

While Hanif Abdurraqib is an acclaimed author, a gifted poet, and one of our culture’s most insightful critics, he is most of all, at heart, an Ohioan.

"There’s Always This Year" is a classic Abdurraqib triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. It’s about basketball in the way "They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us" is about music and "A Little Devil in America" is about history—no matter the subject, Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

About the author: Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. Abdurraqib’s recent book, "A Little Devil in America", was the winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burns Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award. His first full-length poetry collection, "The Crown Ain't Worth Much", was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

About the moderator: Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of many award-winning books, including "Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks", "All American Boys" (with Brendan Kiely), "Long Way Down, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" (with Ibram X. Kendi), "Stuntboy, in the Meantime" (illustrated by Raúl the Third), and "Ain’t Burned All the Bright" (with artwork by Jason Griffin). The recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, an NAACP Image Award, and multiple Coretta Scott King honors, Reynolds is also the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, and various media outlets. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC.

6:30 PM - Doors Open | 7 PM Conversation Begins
Face masks are REQUIRED throughout the event.
Books will be autographed in advance.