How to Be Drawn

The major themes that coincide in this collection are those of racial and social injustices. Other themes throughout this work are violence, family troubles, and everyday personal loss. Hayes surveys, throughout this collection, how people see and how people are seen by others. The collection draws inspiration from other works of art, from novels to music to games. In "How to Be Drawn to Trouble", the poem features lyrics from James Brown to explore the pressures of matrimonial and familial hungers. In the poem "How to Draw an Invisible Man", Hayes analyzes what it means to be invisible but also visible in America.[2] Trevor Ketner, writing in The Rumpus, said that it "echoes the cultural critique of race relations in America" he found in Ralph Ellison's work Invisible Man.[3]

The poems are written in free verse, meaning there is no set rhyme scheme, stanza form, or metrical structure. The diction used throughout the collection is conversational and Hayes uses word play to convey the message that he has for each of his poems, instead of drawing away using rhythm or rhyme.[4] Poet Tess Taylor noted that "his writing is full of puns and fake outs, leads and dodges, all encased in muscular music."[5]

How to Be Drawn was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was the winner of the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry.[1][7]

• Terrance Hayes on "How to Be Drawn" at the 2017 AWP Book Fair
• Terrance Hayes speaking about "How to Be Drawn" at Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC, May 16, 2015