January 26, 2012
Terrance Hayes is a thought-provoking poet skilled in verbal agility, eloquent imagery and captivating humor. Hayes is the author of four poetry collections, his most recent collection being LightHead. Through this innovative collection, Hayes investigates how we create experience, presenting “the light-headedness of a mind trying to pull against gravity and time.”
The book of 42 poems is structured in four parts, all of which feature poems inspired by a Japanese presentation called pecha kucha that encourages the writer to narrate on 20 images on a single theme. Examples of this can be viewed in his “The Magic of Magic” and “The Function of Fiction.” His three previous books, Muscular Music (winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize), Hip Logic (which won the National Poetry Series Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award) and Wind In A Box (Best 100 Books of 2006 by Publishers Weekly), demonstrate similar thematic obsessions such as race, identity, masculinity, father figures and fatherhood.
His other honors include a Pushcart Prize, three Best American Poetry selections, a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Hayes is a professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, Hayes held an intimate poet’s workshop with aspiring creative writers and Hamilton faculty members in the Days-Massolo center. The personal environment of the gathering provided students the opportunity to learn about the creative process firsthand from someone with real experience.
The poetry reading of Hayes most recent work from LightHead is on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. in Bristol. He is hosted by the English and Creative Writing Department and co-sponsored by the dean of faculty speaker fund and the Days-Massolo Center.