{"product_id":"theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension-1","title":"There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Hanif Abdurraqib\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRandom House\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3\/25\/2025, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSKU: 9780593448809\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home--from the author of the National Book Award finalist \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/a-little-devil-in-america-in-praise-of-black-performance\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Little Devil in America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren't. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. \"Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father's jump shot,\" Abdurraqib writes. \"The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThere's Always This Year \u003c\/i\u003eis a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus--whether it's basketball, or music, or performance--Hanif 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Hanif Abdurraqib writes: \u003ci\u003eYou are, in part, who loves you\u003c\/i\u003e. I've never read a book more full of love--heartbreaking, poetic, rapturous--than \u003ci\u003eThere's Always This Year\u003c\/i\u003e. He loves basketball, his court, his block, his city, but most of all, his people, and he beautifully shares it in this indelible and mesmerizing book. Abdurraqib has written not only the most original sports book I've ever read but one of the most moving books I've ever read, period.... Utterly transcendent.\" -- Steve James, director of \u003ci\u003eHoop Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Hanif Abdurraqib again shows us new ways to be a social critic, a dreamer, a historian, and a lover of hoop. But--and this feels especially moving--he shows us how he wonders about, and how he is transformed in the wondering about, what it means to \u003ci\u003ebelong to\u003c\/i\u003e a place. And you know by place I mean the people, the memories, the sorrows, the tomorrows, who are that place. And you know by all that I mean the love.\" -- Ross Gay, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Delights\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"MacArthur fellow Abdurraqib follows his Carnegie Medal-winning \u003ci\u003eA Little Devil in America\u003c\/i\u003e with another unique, memoir-propelled, far-ranging, and affecting inquiry.... Structured like a game in quarters and minutes, it's a galvanic drive through the intricacies of family, community, belief, and dreams,... Abdurraqib keeps multiple balls in the air as he swerves, spins, and scores, and every thoughtfully considered and vividly described element and emotion, action and moment, ultimately connects. An exhilarating, heartfelt, virtuoso, and profound performance.\" -- \u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHanif Abdurraqib\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation \"Genius\" grant. His most recent book, \u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/a-little-devil-in-america-in-praise-of-black-performance\"\u003eA Little Devil in America\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e was the winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burns Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award. His first collection of essays, \u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/they-cant-kill-us-until-they-kill-us-expanded-edition?variant=45372298658075\"\u003eThey Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e was named one of the books of the year by NPR, \u003ci\u003eEsquire, BuzzFeed, O: The Oprah Magazine, Pitchfork, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune, \u003c\/i\u003e among others. \u003ci\u003eGo Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest\u003c\/i\u003e was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize finalist and was longlisted for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burning Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52656691904795,"sku":"There's Always This Year PB","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0466\/5121\/files\/9780593448793.jpg?v=1712253222","url":"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension-1","provider":"Burning Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}