A Fortune for Your Disaster Cover
Podcast Mentions

A Fortune for Your Disaster

Hanif Abdurraqib

“When an author’s unmitigated brilliance shows up on every page, it’s tempting to skip a description and just say, Read this! Such is the case with this breathlessly powerful, deceptively breezy book of poetry.” — In his much-anticipated follow-up to

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The Ezra Klein Show

Podcast

The Ezra Klein Show

She highlighted the poetry collection as a recent favorite, praising its deep exploration and calling it an extraordinary work she has revisited multiple times.

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It is called A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib ... It is a really deep exploration ... I think it is a beautiful piece.

— Episode: A Grammy-Nominated Singer Performs and E...

Episode: A Grammy-Nominated Singer Performs and Explores Mu...

She highlighted the poetry collection as a recent favorite, praising its deep exploration and calling it an extraordinary work she has revisited multiple times.

"

It is called A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib ... It is a really deep exploration ... I think it is a beautiful piece.

On Being with Krista Tippett

Podcast

On Being with Krista Tippett

This book of poems explores themes of mortality and beauty, and the speaker's reflections on their relationship with flowers. The author also addresses the idea that they do not need to limit themselves to writing about only one topic or perspective at a time and uses the idea of flowers to also discuss oppression and power.

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How can black people write about flowers at a time like this? Forgive me for I've been nurturing my well-worn grudges against beauty.

— Episode: [Unedited] Hanif Abdurraqib with Pádrai...

Episode: [Unedited] Hanif Abdurraqib with Pádraig Ó Tuama

This book of poems explores themes of mortality and beauty, and the speaker's reflections on their relationship with flowers. The author also addresses the idea that they do not need to limit themselves to writing about only one topic or perspective at a time and uses the idea of flowers to also discuss oppression and power.

"

How can black people write about flowers at a time like this? Forgive me for I've been nurturing my well-worn grudges against beauty.

How can black people write about flowers at a time like this? Dear reader, with our heels digging into the good mud at a swamp's edge you might tell me something about the dandelion head and how it is not a flower itself but a plant made up of many small flowers at its crown and lord knows I have been called by what I look like more than I have been called by what I actually am and I wish to return the favor for the purpose of this exercise which, too, is an attempt at fashioning something pretty out of seeds refusing to make anything worthwhile of their burial.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.