Terrance Hayes (born November 18, 1971) is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. His 2010 collection, ''Lighthead'', won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010. In September 2014, he was one of 21 recipients of a prestigious

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

, awarded to individuals who show outstanding creativity in their work.

Life and education

Hayes was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the cit ...

. He received a B.A. from Coker University and an M.F.A. from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

writing program. He was a Professor of Creative Writing at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

until 2013, at which time he joined the faculty at the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, he teaches at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. Hayes lives in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and he and his ex-wife, the poet Yona Harvey, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, share the custody of their two children.

Works

Hayes's first book of poetry, ''Muscular Music'' (1999), won both a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

and the

Kate Tufts Discovery Award The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the ...

. His second collection, ''Hip Logic'' (2002), won the

National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and cho ...

, was a finalist for the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. He won the National Book Award for ''Lighthead'' (in which he invented the " golden shovel" poetic form).The End of the Line: Terrance Hayes and Formal Innovation
by

Dora Malech Dora Malech (born September 4, 1981) is an American poet. Life Malech grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, earned a BA in Fine Arts from Yale University in 2003, and received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2005. She ...

, in ''

The Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ' ...

''; published December 22, 2016; retrieved February 15, 2020 Hayes's poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

The American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizabet ...

'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'', ''

Fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

'', ''

'', ''Jubilat'', ''

Harvard Review ''Harvard Review'' is a biannual literary journal published by Houghton Library at Harvard University. History In 1986 Stratis Haviaras, curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University, founded a quarterly periodical called ''Erato''. ...

'', '' West Branch'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...

,'' and ''

The Adroit Journal ''The Adroit Journal'' is an American literary magazine founded in November 2010. Published five times per year by founding editor Peter LaBerge, the journal was produced with the support of the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House ...

''.'' In praising Hayes's work,

Cornelius Eady Cornelius Eady (born 1954) is an American writer focusing largely on matters of race and society. His poetry often centers on jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questions of race and class. His poetry is o ...

has said: "First you'll marvel at his skill, his near-perfect pitch, his disarming humor, his brilliant turns of phrase. Then you'll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world." In September 2014, he was honored as one of the 21 2014 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In January 2017, Hayes was elected a Chancellor of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

. In 2018, Hayes premiered Cycles of My Being commissioned by Opera Philadelphia,

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...

, and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

with music by

Tyshawn Sorey Tyshawn Sorey (born July 8, 1980) is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, and professor of contemporary music. Sorey has received accolades for performances, recordings, and compositions ranging from improvised solo percussion to opera, ...

starring Lawrence Brownlee. This song cycles center on what it means to be a Black man living in America today. In 2020, the song cycle was made into a film by Opera Philadelphia and released on their digital channel. The poetry was from Hayes' book '' American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin''.

Awards

* 2020 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for '' American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin'' * 2014 MacArthur Foundation Fellow * 2011

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

Zell Fellow for Literature * 2010 National Book Award for Poetry, for ''Lighthead'' *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Fellowship * 2009

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

, a Best American Poetry 2005 selection *

James Laughlin Award The James Laughlin Award, formerly the Lamont Poetry Prize, is given annually for a poet's second published book; it is the only major poetry award that honors a second book. The award is given by the Academy of American Poets, and is noted as one ...

runner-up, from the

* 2001

, for ''Hip Logic'' *

for ''Muscular Music'' (1999) * 1999

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * * * * * —winner of the National Book Award(With acceptance speech, reading, interview, and other materials.) * * ;List of poems

Nonfiction

References

External links

*
Essays, poems, video of Terrance Hayes
at Poets.org
Profile and poems of Terrance Hayes, including audio files
at the Poetry Foundation.

* ttp://www.missourireview.org/content/dynamic/text_detail.php?text_id=13 Interview: ''The Missouri Review'' > Issue 29.4, Winter 2006 > ''A Conversation with Terrance Hayes'' by Jason Koo* *
Library of Congress Online Catalog > Terrance Hayes

Profile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Terrance 1971 births Living people 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American male poets Carnegie Mellon University faculty Coker University alumni English-language poets MacArthur Fellows National Book Award winners National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Poets from Pennsylvania Poets from South Carolina The New Yorker people University of Pittsburgh alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty Writers from Columbia, South Carolina 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers