Terrance Hayes is the author of Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other poetry collections are American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, How to Be Drawn, Wind in a Box, Hip Logic, and Muscular Music, and he is also the author of To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Hayes lives in New York City, where he is a professor of creative writing at NYU.

Other poems by Terrance Hayes in Verse Daily:
August 14, 2018:   "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin" "In a parallel world where all Dr. Who's..."
March 17, 2015:   "My Life as a Hummer" "My life as a hummer followed my life..."
January 28, 2008:   "The Blue Sylvia" "A daily dose of repentance. Eyeballs rattling..."

Other poems on the web by Terrance Hayes:
Nineteen poems
Twenty poems
Three poems
"Homage To Gertrude Badu"
Three poems
Twelve poems
"AMERICAN SONNET FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN"
"LUNCH BOXES WITH FRANK O'HARA"
Four poems
"GEORGE FLOYD"
"Lighthead's Guide to the Galaxy"

Terrance Hayes's Website.

About So To Speak:

"Hayes' new work is as vital and energetic as ever, but there's also a new tone in many places here—penitent, self-inculpatory. These are the poems of a certain age: scars so old others must tell you how they are made. Hayes' invention allows his poetry to house almost anything: from the political to the sensual, from a magic goat to a talking cat. He is a singular poet, and this book a singular achievement."
—Nick Laird

"Like the great composers and musicians—like Thelonious and Miles, like Bach—Hayes is ever witty and elegant. His concerns are unexpected and yet right on time. His verse is so close to music, you'll wonder if you're reading words or notes. Solemnly elegiac and brokenheartedly playful, So to Speak is poetry of pure genius."
—Toi Derricotte