With a handful of books up his belt, Hanif Abdurraqib was one of the celebrated authors at the 2019 Miami Book Fair hosted by Miami Dade College, which concluded this past weekend.
His most recent book, “A Fortune for Your Disaster,” released in September, is a collection of poems that was highly anticipated by his readers after his last poetry book hit the stands in 2016.
Divided into three sections, “The Pledge,” “The Prestige” and “The Turn,” the book takes the audience on a journey of heartbreak, self-discovery and metaphors of flowers that take a dive into black culture.
“I was interested in using flowers as a vehicle or using the unknown as a vehicle to get to the heart of this larger question I was wrestling with,” said the New York Times best-selling author.
Abdurraqib spent his time at the Miami Book Fair as a speaker at two panels – “American Lives” and “Four Poets on Trauma, Tenderness and Survival.” He led conversations on his poetry, music and culture.