Join Laurie Byro and the Circle as they discuss the poetry of Robert Hayden. Selected poems are available at the Help Desk or can be viewed here: Robert Hayden Poetry
Born Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit’s Paradise Valley, Robert Hayden had a turbulent upbringing, split between his birth parents and a foster family. He graduated high school in 1932 and, aided by a scholarship, attended Detroit City College before earning a graduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1944.
Hayden published his first poetry collection, Heart-Shape in the Dust, in 1940. While studying literature at Michigan, he was mentored by poet W. H. Auden, who greatly influenced his work. Hayden drew inspiration from both modernist and Harlem Renaissance poets and frequently explored African American history and racial identity in his writing. Though he authored nine poetry collections, essays, and children’s literature, Hayden resisted being labeled solely as a “Black poet,” asserting instead his identity as an American poet. His 1962 book Ballad of Remembrance won the grand prize for poetry at the 1966 World Festival of Negro Arts in Senegal. Hayden was the first Black faculty member in the University of Michigan English Department, later teaching at Fisk University for over two decades. He was awarded the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 1975 and, in 1976, became the first Black American named Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (now U.S. poet laureate).