Terrance Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina. He received a B.A. from Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, and an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Terrance is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin, 2006), Hip Logic (2002), which won National Poetry Series, and Muscular Music (1999), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

About Terrance'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."

Terrance has been a recipient of many honors and awards, including a Whiting Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Best American Poetry selection, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.