Exceptional Poet

Terrance Hayes, professor of English at CMU

At a recent ceremony in New York City, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Terrance Hayes accepted a 2010 National Book Award, a top U.S. literary prize, for his latest book of poetry, "Lighthead." Hayes is the first CMU professor to win the coveted award.

In "Lighthead," Hayes combines different poetry styles, including the Japanese presentation format Pecha Kucha, to tell personal, political and historical stories.

Hayes joined the CMU faculty in 2001 and teaches beginning and advanced poetry workshops in the English Department's Creative Writing Program.

"I love reading and talking about poetry as much as I love writing it. So teaching is the very place for such conversations to happen regularly," he said. "I rarely teach the same poetry books twice so I'm always discovering as much as my students.

Ari Klein (HS'08,'10,'11) was one of those students.

"What has always stood out to me about Terrance is his genuine approachability, his sincere willingness to help," Klein said. "When I would sit down with him, I would get the feeling that nothing was more important to him than our conversation."

Hayes said he was honored to be named a finalist for what he considers to be the "Oscars of the literary world." He describes "Lighthead" as the result of obsession and joyful work.

"I had been thinking about the imagination as a sort of lightheadedness and also of a 'light head' as a head on fire," he said. "Fire is a source of warmth and passion, but it's also a source for destruction. It illuminates, it burns. This became a guiding principle for the book. It's organized around positive and negative, internal and external images of fire."

Mariluz Orbay-Cerrato, a senior in CMU's creative writing program, says Hayes knows how to connect with his students.

"Its motivating to have a teacher who helps me improve and understand my own work better and who is also someone I look up to," Orbay-Cerrato said. "He is proof that with dedication you can make a successful career out of what you love."

One thing that is characteristic of Hayes' style of directing a class, according Christian Aponte (HS'13) is his spontaneous and unsystematic revelations.

"One minute he may be drawing a comparison of poetry to a nineties R&B music artist and the next he is sharing an encounter he had recently with a contemporary poet," said Aponte. "Being in the classroom with him is refreshing, enlightening and intellectually stimulating."

"Lighthead" is Hayes' fourth poetry book. His previous collection, "Wind in a Box," was named one of the Best 100 Books of 2006 by Publishers Weekly.

His other poetry books are "Hip Logic," which won the National Poetry Series Open Competition and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and "Muscular Music," which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

Hayes' other honors include two Pushcart Prizes, four "Best American Poetry" selections, a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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