Contact: Karyn Brown
Photo by: submitted
STARKVILLE, Miss.--National award-winning poet Terrance Hayes visits Mississippi State next week [Feb. 9-13] as the writer-in-residence with the College of Arts and Sciences' Institute for the Humanities.
A University of Pittsburgh English professor, he is a winner of the MacArthur Fellowship, as well as the Whiting Writers Award and National Endowment for the Arts, United States Artists Zell and Guggenheim fellowships.
Hayes will read from his poetry during a 7 p.m. Tuesday [Feb. 10] program. Taking place in in McCool Hall's Taylor Auditorium, the event is free and open to all.
He is the author of five books of poetry, including "Lighthead," winner of a 2010 National Book Award.
A graduate of Pittsburgh and Coker College in his native South Carolina, Hayes also was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and his works are two-time selections for the Pushcart Prize anthology and have appeared in seven editions of "The Best American Poetry." Other honored works include "Wind in a Box; Hip Logic," winner of the National Poetry Series, and "Muscular Music," winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
His latest release, "How to Be Drawn," is scheduled for publication later this year. For more biographical information, visit www.writing.pitt.edu/people/faculty/terrance-hayes.
While at MSU, Hayes will hold office hours, meet with a creative writing class and be part of an informal discussion with students in the African American Studies program.
"Terrance Hayes is one of the most innovative, engaging and critically acclaimed poets writing today," said associate professor Catherine Pierce of MSU's English department.
Pierce, who directs the department's creative writing program, said Hayes' "sharp, formally inventive, sometimes funny, always powerful poems touch on everything from family to race to pop culture to history, and hearing him read his work is a thrill."
William Anthony Hay, Institute for the Humanities director, said the writer-in-residence program is beginning its second year. It and related initiatives were created to provide MSU students with additional opportunities to learn from leading figures in their respective fields, the associate professor of history added.
He said public events like Hayes' poetry reading also enable the institute to "reach out to the wider campus" and provide another way of "highlighting Mississippi State's engagement with the humanities."
For more information about Hayes' visit, contact the institute at whay@history.msstate.edu. The institute's website is www.ih.msstate.edu.
The College of Arts and Sciences is MSU's largest academic unit and is found online at www.cas.msstate.edu. For additional information on the college, humanities institute, English department or other entities, contact communication director Karyn Brown at 662-325-7952 or kbrown@deanas.msstate.edu.
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