Muscular Music [Paperback]

Terrance Hayes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 1999

Poetry. African American Studies. "Reading theses poems, you'll think the stereo is on--their music is that sure and rich, exuberant and sorrowful in turns, full of a sexual sway. Terrance Hayes takes us through a living library of cultural icons, from Shaft and Fat Albert to Coltrane and Miles Davis, but we always end up at the heart, where damage and tenderness mix, where lonliness becomes a blood tie. His generous vision finds beauty in our most flawed gestures"--Betsy Sholl, author of THE RED LINE and DON'T EXPLAIN. Terrance Hayes is a native of South Carolina. He received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997 and has published in a range of literary journals and anthologies. MUSCULAR MUSIC is his first book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

At Pegasus
Ballad Of Bullethead
Blackbird (calling My Brother To Hear Roberta)
Boxcar
Buy One, Get One
Derrick Poem (the Lost World)
Goliath Poem
Hathaway
Howyoubeens
I Want To Be Fat
Jumpschool: Poem For My Brother In Air
Lady Sings The Blues
Late; For My Mother
Midnight
Morning Poem
Noir: Orpheus
Pittsburgh
Poet Dying At The Window
Salami (a Manifesto)
Shafro
Some Luminous Distress
Something For Marvin
Summer
Tenderness
What I Am
When The Neighbors Fight
Woman Walking On The Road
Yummy Suite; Blues
Yummy Suite; Blues For Shavon
Yummy Suite; Derrick & Cragg
Yummy Suite; From Micaiah
Yummy Suite; From Reen
Yummy Suite; Janie Fields
Yummy Suite; Little Ron
Yummy Suite; Local Grocer
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

From the Back Cover

Winner of the Whiting Writer's Award

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Tia Chucha (May 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188268821X
• ISBN-13: 978-1882688210
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,298,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terrance Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1971. Lighthead, his most recent poetry collection, won the 2010 National Book Award. His third collection, Wind in a Box (Pengiuin 2006), was named one of the best 100 books of 2006 by Publishers Weekly. His other books of poetry are Muscular Music (1999), which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Hip Logic (2002), which won the National Poetry Series Open Competition. His honors include a Pushcart Prize, three Best American Poetry selections, a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK, August 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Muscular Music (Paperback)

For the past two years, an autographed copy of one Hayes' self-published chapbooks has been the treasure of my bookshelf. His first book now shares that spot. Whenever I grow bored of the posturing and sameness that ails the current poetry scene, the poems of Hayes -- like those of Martin Espada -- remind me just how rare and wonderful poetry can be. Some have said Terrance will be a major African-American writer in short time. They're wrong. He will a MAJOR American writer. You should not miss this book. As good as the poems are on the page, they're even better coming from his mouth. Do yourself a favor, if he reads within a 90-minutes of your home, take that ride. It's certainly worth it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SHAFT!--CAN YOU DIG IT?, May 19, 1999

By 

Denise Duhamel (Miami Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Muscular Music (Paperback)

Terrance Hayes' first book MUSCULAR MUSIC is the most exciting first book of poetry I've read in years! Do not be fooled as Mr. Hayes lures you into his seemingly kooky world of Fat Albert, Shaft, and Fred Sanford. His accute eye and ear for the stuff of pop culture soon zooms in on tough stuff--race, violence, broken families. My favorite poem in the book "Goliath Poem" ends "We listened to rain like the sound of a big man's tears,/the sound God made before the Word or Light,/And the moon curved above us like an ear."Hayes combines wit and tenderness throughout this book making it truly magical to read.

5.0 out of 5 stars the next "big thing", October 25, 2006

By 

Matthew Siegel (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muscular Music: (Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporaries) (Paperback)

Terrance Hayes is a name you will see again. I promise you.

An earlier edition of this book came into my hands shortly after I worked with this wonderful poet at a seminar for younger poets. A wonderful first collection. So human it hurts. Get it now that it's back in print!