The American Booksellers Association has named Hanif Abdurraqib its new Indie Bookstore Ambassador, the group announced in a news release.
Abdurraqib made his literary debut in 2016 with the poetry collection The Crown Ain’t Worth Much and followed that up in 2017 with the essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. His 2019 book, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
He was named a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, and his book There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
The Indie Bookstore Ambassador position, the ABA says, “ignites indie booksellers around a shared purpose: fostering future generations of readers while championing the freedom to read, both central to indies and ABA’s mission.”
Abdurraqib said in a statement, “When I am traveling, the places I often go to first are the independent bookstores in a city, because independent booksellers often have a unique understanding of the place they are in and the responsibility they have to the people in the place, which means they can make a unique map of a city and the interests of people in it. I am honored to serve in this role because I believe indie booksellers are masters of close attention, and the benefit of that close attention is the ability to place something in someone’s hand that can be transportive, and life-altering.”
The post of Indie Bookstore Ambassador was established in 2022. Previous ambassadors include Celeste Ng, Amanda Gorman, Trevor Noah, and LeVar Burton.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
