Terrance Hayes is a pivotal figure in contemporary poetry. His work crackles with rhythmic innovation, deft lyricism, and poignant insight while exploring themes ranging from music to masculinity to African American experience. He revitalizes traditional structures, such as the sonnet, infusing them with an energy that speaks to our contemporary moment. His collection Lighthead won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010, cementing his position as a significant voice in American literature, and he has since received the highly esteemed MacArthur Fellowship.

This program is presented in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Faculty of Letters of Sorbonne University and the Sorbonne’s Poetry Beyond project. Hayes will read from two of his recent poetry collections, “So to Speak (2023) and American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (2018). The reading will be followed by an exchange with the public.  

Learn More:

To read a selection of Hayes’s poems, check out his profile on The Poetry Foundation.

The musicality of Hayes’s writing is best appreciated when his work is read aloud. You can listen to Hayes reading a sonnet from his collection “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin” here.

About the speaker: 

Terrance Hayes is the author of seven poetry collections: So to Speak; American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin, a finalist for the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and TS Eliot Prize; How to Be Drawn; Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award for poetry; Muscular Music, recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; Hip Logic, winner of the 2001 National Poetry Series, and Wind in a Box. His prose collection, To Float In The Space Between: Drawings and Essays in Conversation with Etheridge Knight, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. Hayes has received fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and Whiting Foundation, and is a professor of English at New York University.

Important information: This event will not take place at the Library. Hayes will speak at the Sorbonne’s Amphithéâtre Farabeuf (15 rue de l’École de Médecine). 

Access to this event requires purchase of a ticket through BilletWeb.fr. Click on the button below to sign up