2026 Winner

In a unique and evocative collection, Abdurraqib weaves music and sports together with contemporary American politics and Blackness. In the wake of the 2015 Paris nightclub attacks, Abdurraqib recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at punk shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will be afforded that same opportunity. He details road trips to see bands in majority white spaces and police stops in that same car. He expertly tracks the inescapable racism he experiences while also offering the counterpoint of the joy that he gets from being a fan in music and sports. Examples like attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown’s grave or considering public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, Abdurraqib writes with a poignancy and magnetism that profoundly resonates.

Abdurraqib turns his insightful eye to one of America’s most influential rap groups in this bestselling profile. Beloved by hip hop heads around the world, A Tribe Called Quest brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Abdurraqib digs into the group’s history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself, and what it means for society as a whole.

“I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too.” Inspired by these words spoken by Josephine Baker at the seminal civil rights event, the 1963 March on Washington, Abdurraqib writes a stirring and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Each moment in every performance he examines has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib’s own personal history of love, grief, and performance. With his signature prose styling, Abdurraqib’s words dance across the page and illuminate how much performance informs us all.

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the 1990s, Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged, and many other players reached for the top and fell short. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it. Interspersing his own life, filled with highs and lows, Abdurraqib has written a meditation on who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models. Not simply a basketball book, this is an intimate, personal book that details modern America, what it’s like to try and ascend beyond expectations, and what to do when we fall.