“It’s a real culture shock and emotional shock,” Hanif Abdurraqib said in a recent phone interview. The poet, essayist and cultural critic was describing his experience of being surrounded by hundreds of readers in a room while going on tour — made more challenging while fasting for Ramadan — for his best-selling book, “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension.”His reaction stems partly from the fact that he hasn’t done the usual fanfare that accompanies a book launch since 2019 — the last year he toured in person. And in that time, much has changed for Abdurraqib (more so, perhaps, than other writers): He bought his first home in the neighborhood of Bronzeville in his hometown, Columbus, Ohio; he released his best-known book, “A Little Devil in America,” part memoir and part love letter to Black performance in America; and he was awarded a MacArthur fellowship and an Andrew Carnegie Medal, among other accolades. “I have a lot of gratitude, and everyone is really kind,” said Abdurraqib, 40, who is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. “Because I haven’t been on tour for so long, the responses to my work have grown in my time away, so it’s been good.”

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Persons: “, ” Hanif Abdurraqib, —, Andrew Carnegie, ”, Abdurraqib, it’s Organizations: MacArthur, The New York Times Magazine Locations: Bronzeville, Columbus , Ohio, America