Congratulations to MacArthur Foundation Fellows Hanif Abdurraqib, Don Mee Choi

This week brought very auspicious news for a pair of poets that you can find in the PennSound archives: both Hanif Abdurraqib and Don Mee Choi (along with Reginald Dwayne Betts) were awarded fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation (commonly referred to as "genius grants") for their life's work.

Hanif Abdurraqib was hailed as "a music critic, essayist, and poet using the lens of popular music to examine the broader culture that produces and consumes it." "With an intimate and welcoming writing style that establishes an immediate connection with readers," they continue, "he blends autobiography, social history, and keen insights into specific technical and emotional aspects of a song, an album, or a performance." "Omnivorous in his influences and prolific in his output," they conclude, "Abdurraqib is forging a new form of cultural criticism, one that is informed by lived experience and offers incisive social and artistic critiques." 

Our recently-constructed author page for Abdurraqib,  is anchored by his virtual reading at our own Kelly Writers House last spring. Video footage from that event is available, along with segmented MP3 audio that you can stream or download. In the first half, Abdurraqib reads the ten-part poem "All the TV Shows Are About Cops," which is split into individual tracks. The Q&A session that followed has also been split into thematic segments, such as "on the writing process," "on making an office space," "tips for aspiring cultural critics," "on being influenced by his favorite books," and "on sneakers." These new tracks join an old favorite, a January 2019 reading of "USAvsCuba," taken from his debut collection The Crown Ain't Worth Much (Button Poetry). 

Don Mee Choi was a perennial presence in our PennSound Daily entries last fall as she won the National Book Award for her latest collection, DMZ Colony (Wave Books) so it's no surprise to see her return to these pages for an even greater honor. The MacArthur committee singled her out as "a poet and translator grappling with the effects of military violence and U.S. imperial legacies on the Korean Peninsula." "In her three volumes of poetry and numerous essays," they continue, "she explores themes of dislocation, fractured identities, trauma, and memory, while amplifying civilian voices that have been obscured by the history and looming threat of war in her homeland." In closing, they observe how "Choi’s intertwined practices as poet and translator bear witness to otherwise unspeakable histories and expand the range of expressive possibilities for writers from diasporic and multilingual backgrounds."

While we don't have a PennSound author page for Don Mee Choi, you can hear her reading her work as part of Poetry Politic and as part of the 2012 MLA Offsite Reading. 

We congratulate both Abdurraqib and Choi for this life-changing honor. Click the links above to listen to the aforementioned recordings.