Despite writing in conventional poetry forms, Hayden's breadth of voices and styles offered his work a wide variety. "Hayden is a poet of many voices," commented Robert G. O'Meally in the Washington Post Book World, "using variants of sardonic black vernacular dialect and a sparse, exuberant lyrical language to grasp and freeze his readers." He has been called the Black Dylan Thomas and also the Black Emily Dickinson. Hayden first came to national attention when he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1983. Since then he has published five collections of poems: Hayden's Ferry Press published his first collection, Songs from the Dust Bowl (1983); University of Illinois Press released his second book, The Way Some People Live Their Lives (1986); Graywolf Press published Two Bottles of Blood in 1992; and Copper Canyon Press released More Than One America in 1998. In addition to publishing books, Hayden has produced several volumes of essays and reviews as well as two memoirs: My Life in Poetry (1979) and A Child's View of Death (1990). Hayden was born on January 4th, 1945 in Meridian, Mississippi. His mother died when he was only six years old and he was raised by an alcoholic father who frequently left home to pursue other women. At the age of fourteen, after running away from home, Hayden returned and took charge of the household while still attending school.