(WASHINGTON, NJ) -- The Warren County Community College Visiting Authors Series continues on Tuesday, December 6, with a reading and master class by the poet Terrance Hayes. The reading, beginning at 7:30pm in room 123A, is free and open to the public. 

Terrance Hayes is the author of six books of poetry: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (2018), a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in Poetry and winner of the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry; How to Be Drawn (2015), longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry; Lighthead (2010), winner of the 2010 National Book Award in Poetry; Wind in a Box, winner of a Pushcart Prize; Hip Logic, winner of the National Poetry Series, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and Muscular Music, winner of both the Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

Hayes is also the author of the short story collection To Float In The Space Between: Drawings and Essays in Conversation with Etheridge Knight (2018), which won the 2019 Etheridge Knight Criticism Collection award from The Poetry Foundation; and the editor of the anthology Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems. He has been a recipient of many other honors and awards, including a 2014 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, two Pushcart selections, eight Best American Poetry selections, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Guggenheim Foundation. 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, and Poetry. His poetry has also been featured on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Before giving a reading, Hayes will conduct a master class at the college, commencing at 4:00pm. This event is also free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. Interested attendees should contact Professor BJ Ward, Director of the Visiting Authors Series, at (908) 835-2531 or [email protected]. 

The evening reading will be followed by a brief Q & A with the audience and a book signing.  Frenchtown Bookshop will be onsite for the reading, selling Hayes’ books. 

The Visiting Authors Series is supported by a grant from the Warren County Division of Cultural & Heritage Affairs. All physical site facilities comply with ADA regulations and are fully accessible. Sign language interpretation for any VAS event is available with two weeks’ notice. 

Coming up in the series is Former Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky on Thursday, March 9, 2023. The finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry's latest work is Jersey Breaks. Reading at 7:30pm.

Warren Community College, located at 475 Route 57 West in Washington, NJ, offers students the option of earning an Associate of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, the first and only degree of its kind in New Jersey.