Hayes's first book of poetry, Muscular Music (1999), won both a Whiting Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.[6] His second collection, Hip Logic (2002), won the National Poetry Series, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.[7] He won the National Book Award for Lighthead[1] (in which he invented the "golden shovel" poetic form).[8]
Hayes's poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Fence, The Kenyon Review, Jubilat, Harvard Review, West Branch, Poetry, and The Adroit Journal.[9]
In praising Hayes'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."[7]
In September 2014, he was honored as one of the 21 2014 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[10]
In January 2017, Hayes was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.[7]
In 2018, Hayes premiered Cycles of My Being commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Carnegie Hall with music by Tyshawn Sorey starring Lawrence Brownlee. This song cycles center on what it means to be a Black man living in America today. In 2020, the song cycle was made into a film by Opera Philadelphia and released on their digital channel. The poetry was from Hayes' book American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin.[11]
In 2023, Hayes, alongside Nancy Krygowski and Jeffrey McDaniel, was named editor of the Pitt Poetry Series.[12]
