Terrance Hayes
Terrance Hayes 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 the prestigious MacArthur fellowships awarded to individuals who show outstanding creativity in their work.
Life and education
Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina.He received a B.A. from Coker College and an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh writing program. He was a Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University 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.
He lives in Manhattan, 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, won both a Whiting Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His second collection, Hip Logic, won the National Poetry Series, 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.Hayes's poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Fence, The Kenyon Review, Jubilat Harvard Review, West Branch, Poetry, and The Adroit Journal.
In praising Hayes's work, Cornelius Eady 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.
Awards
- 2014 MacArthur Foundation Fellow
- 2011 United States Artists Zell Fellow for Literature
- 2010 National Book Award for Poetry, for Lighthead
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship
- Pushcart Prize, a Best American Poetry 2005 selection
- James Laughlin Award runner-up, from the Academy of American Poets
- 2001 National Poetry Series, for Hip Logic
- Kate Tufts Discovery Award for Muscular Music
- 1999 Whiting Award
Poetry
- —winner of the National Book Award
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
| Ars poetica with bacon | 2016 | ||
| American Sonnet for the New Year | 2019 |