Abdurraqib wins Gordon Burn Prize 2021

Hanif Abdurraqib has won the Gordon Burn Prize for his collection of essays, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (Penguin Press).

The announcement was made by Denise Mina, chair of the judges, on 14th October at Durham Book Festival.Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist and cultural critic. He wins £5,000 for the award and the opportunity to take up a writing retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish Borders.

Inspired by Josephine Baker’s words "I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too" Abdurraqib's book delivers a meditation on Black performance in the modern age that reaches back through the lives of musicians, cultural figures, history and his own personal story of love and grief. 

Abdurraqib said: "It is a joy and an honour to even be nominated, to be in the company of such brilliance. To be a part of this award and its growing legacy means the world to me, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude.”

Judge Denise Mina praised the book's "verve and style, taking unexpected turns and focus to illuminate the artistic experience of Black culture in America" and said it "is simultaneously a joyous celebration and a crushing reproach”.

Fellow judge Sian Cain said it was "as uplifting, devastating, informative and profound a work of nonfiction as I can remember reading". She added: "If a group of readers was looking for a graceful word on Blackness, on music, on comedy, on dance, on performance, on maleness, on joy, on despair, on beauty, they could all be handed a copy of Abdurraqib's book and find it. I hope this win means more people pick it up and come to appreciate what a wonderful work of cultural criticism and memoir it is.”

This year's shortlist featured Sam Byers' Come Join Our Disease (Faber), Doireann Ní Ghríofa's A Ghost in the Throat (Tramp Press), Jenni Fagan's Luckenbooth (William Heinemann), Salena Godden's Mrs Death Misses Death (Canongate), and Tabitha Lasley's Sea State (HarperCollins). 

The Gordon Burn Prize was founded in 2012 and is run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival. The prize seeks to celebrate those who follow in the footsteps of the groundbreaking author Gordon Burn, who died in 2009.

Last year's winner was Peter Pomerantsev for This is Not Propaganda (Faber), his study on the war against reality.