Terrance Hayes (born 1971 Columbia, South Carolina) is a prize-winning American poet. His most recent poetry collection is Lighthead (Penguin, 2010). His second collection, Hip Logic (2002), won the National Poetry Series and also was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. His first book of poetry, Muscular Music (1999), won both the Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Fence, The Kenyon Review, Jubilat Harvard Review,West Branch and Poetry.
Hayes earned his B.A. from Coker College and an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh writing program. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, the poet Yona Harvey, and their children.
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."