Poetry reading: Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes reads from American Sonnets For My Past and Future Assassin. Hayes' poetry is talkative, steeped in danger and innovation, and astutely attuned to contemporary American politics.

 The LA Times argues that his work 'demonstrates a serious commitment to advancing American poetry while recording, celebrating and mourning black American life'. The first sonnet in Hayes' new collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, was written the day after the 2016 Presidential election: Dan Chiasson, in the New Yorker, notes that 'Time had been altered in some baleful and uncertain way; the sonnet offered an alternative unit of measurement, at once ancient, its basic features unchanged for centuries, and urgent, its fourteen lines passing at a brutal clip. These crisis conditions suit Hayes. A former college basketball star, he treats poetry like a timed game, a theatre for dramatic last-minute outcomes.' 

Hayes’s poetry collections include American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (2018); How to Be Drawn (2015), finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; Lighthead (2010), which won the National Book Award, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Wind in a Box (2006); Hip Logic (2002), chosen for the National Poetry Series and also a finalist for an LA Times Book Award and an Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award; and Muscular Music (1999), which won a Kate Tufts Discovery Award. 

Don't miss your chance to hear Hayes read his work - this is a rare UK appearance from one of America's most important contemporary poets. ACS students only: email r.cran@bham.ac.uk to reserve one of a limited number of free tickets.