Poetry: Tribute to Robert Hayden

Award-winning poetry by established and emerging poets throughout the summer.

Please join us for a tribute to poet Robert Hayden in honor of the 250^th anniversary of American independence.

Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, most recently All the Possible Bodies, published by Alice James Books in 2025.  Individual poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The New York Times Magazine, and The Progressive. Organizations ranging from the Cave Canem Foundation and the NAACP to the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Poetry Society of America have recognized Pollock’s work with awards and grants.  He directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY and lives with his family in the lower Hudson Valley.

Nathan McClain (he/him) is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He is a recipient of fellowships from The Frost Place, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a Cave Canem fellow. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. His poems and prose have appeared in The Hopkins Review, The Common, Guesthouse, Poetry Northwest, and Zócalo Public Square, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.