Vaughn Hayes is a poet and writer with hard roots in Kentucky. His words have appeared in Consequence, Poetry South, The Mid-Atlantic Review, and many others. He was awarded his MFA from Western Kentucky University in 2024 and now teaches college writing in Philadelphia. Mythologizing the quotidian—despite the numerous contradictions therein—is his obsession. Otherwise he is loafing with his tabby cat.
Selected work
Friday Reads: On Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading
The Common, 2022
The Crucifixion of a Summer Squirrel
Ponder Review, 2020
A Brief Note on Sincerity
Thimble, 2020
The Child
Coffin Bell, 2023
Cooking Dinner Alone
Oddball Magazine, 2020
New Poetry from Tyler Vaughn Hayes (4 Poems)
The Wrath-Bearing Tree, 2021
Terminal
Funicular Magazine, 2022
Jarek Jarvis at the Snack Machine: A Sketch
BarBar, 2023
20th Century Nudity
Poetry South, 2023
At the Start of War
Mid-Atlantic Review, 2023
High-Efficiency Lightbulb
ionosphere, 2025