WHEN I MEET the poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib in Columbus, Ohio, it's the kind of false-alarm early-March day that lures the locals out of winter burrows and into the park with the promise of warmth and Frisbee and fishing rod. Ducks skim the reflection of a cloudless sky, and purple crocuses poke up through thawing earth. In fact, it's uncannily like a sentence from Abdurraqib's latest book: "Spring, twirling out from behind the doldrums for a brief audition, just to check and see if it's still got it-and it does."
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension is about the sport in its title, but it's equally about the passage of time, grief, and Columbus itself. Abdurraqib tells me this is his most personal work to date, a book he's intended to write for years. "It's one of those things where you have a crush on someone for so long and you finally go out on a date with them--and you just don't know what to do or you're talking too much," he says, which resulted in a first draft that was 120,000 words long. "So much of the overwriting-I can tell I was just trying to convince people to love basketball instead of listening to what I knew to be true: I was brought to this book by basketball, perhaps, but it's not a basketball book." It is more like an extended prose poem divided into four quarters with time-outs.
Denne historien er fra March 25 - April 07, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra March 25 - April 07, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Trapped in Time
A woman relives the same day in a stunning Danish novel.
Polyphonic City
A SOFT, SHIMMERING beauty permeates the images of Mumbai that open Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. For all the nighttime bustle on display-the heave of people, the constant activity and chaos-Kapadia shoots with a flair for the illusory.
Lear at the Fountain of Youth
Kenneth Branagh's production is nipped, tucked, and facile.
A Belfast Lad Goes Home
After playing some iconic Americans, Anthony Boyle is a beloved IRA commander in a riveting new series about the Troubles.
The Pluck of the Irish
Artists from the Indiana-size island continue to dominate popular culture. Online, they've gained a rep as the \"good Europeans.\"
Houston's on Houston
The Corner Store is like an upscale chain for downtown scene-chasers.
A Brownstone That's Pink Inside
Artist Vivian Reiss's Murray Hill house of whimsy.
These Jeans Made Me Gay
The Citizens of Humanity Horseshoe pants complete my queer style.
Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes
Less than six months after her Gagosian sölu show, the artist JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLAND lost her gallery and all her money and was preparing for an exhibition with two the biggest living American artists.
WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Deli Meat Is Rotten