Dean Hollis Robbins to author a new book on Robert Hayden

December 1, 2021

Hollis Robbins, Dean of Arts & Humanities, was invited by Penguin Press to write a new book on the poet Robert Hayden, as part of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s new “Significations” Series. Dean Robbins will be joining “a stellar group of esteemed authors” including Anthony Appiah, Jamaica Kincaid, Wole Soyinka, and Tracy K. Smith to “put their own unique stamp on their subjects, to arrive at their own original forms to best make the significance of these subject sing,” according to publisher Scott Moyers. The goal of the series, stated Dr. Gates, is to “establish a baseline of intellectual reflection on the achievement of creative writers and seminal thinking who have one thing in common, which is that they happen to be ‘Black’ in various ways.” Dean Robbins will be teaching a poetry class focused on Robert Hayden (ENGL 418) this spring.