Hayden is originally from the Illinois elbow of St. Louis, MO. She earned an A.A. in Journalism, a B.A. with double major in Psychology and Philosophy, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and a M.A. in Comparative Religions from Miami University (Thesis: Protecting Native American Sacred Lands). She also is a certified Integral Yoga Hatha and Meditation teacher. A teaching assistantship is what brought her to Ohio, where she stayed, now a Buckeye for over 20+ years.
She is a tenured Full Professor of Humanities, Philosophy, and Religions with emphasis/research areas in Indigenous, Eastern, and Environmental Studies. In 2022, her environmental ethics chapter, Saunter Like Muir: Experience Projects in Environmental Ethics was published by Routledge in the textbook Eco pedagogies: Practical Approaches to Experiential Learning. Writing poetry has always been her passion and she is extremely honored to additionally serve as the current Poet Laureate for Sinclair College.
She received the River Heron Editors’ Choice Poetry Prize for the poem, The Faery Bridges (2023), was chosen as a finalist for the OATYC Teacher of the Year Award and has received several pedagogy awards, including the SOCHE Excellence Award (2017), Humanities Professor of the Year (2019), Chicago Interfaith Core Award (2019), and the prestigious League for Innovation Teaching Excellence Award (2020).
Her poems and prose have been featured and/or are forthcoming by Poetry is Life Press, Wild Ink Publishing, Angela Yurko Smith’s Publisher’s Showcase, Green Shoe Sanctuary, Stripes Literary Magazine, Cosmic Daffodil Journal, Gyroscope Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Rowayat, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Yellow Arrow Publishing, Willows Wept Review, Fevers of the Mind, Devil’s Party Press, Tangled Locks Journal, Red Noise Collective, Slipstream, River Heron Review, Flights, Syncopation Literary Journal, and more.
Hayden’s debut poetry collection is called American Saunter, inspired by her backpacking and traveling across the U.S.
The manuscript was chosen as a semi-finalist for The Birdy Poetry Prize in 2023 and will be published by FlowerSong Press Fall 2024.
She continues to work on further collections of poetry, currently finishing up a manuscript inspired by her European travels and a chapbook about her grandmothers.
Additionally, in 2021, she and her family worked on bringing the stories of their farm rescues to print, resulting in the all ages book, Windy Chicken Farm Animal Rescue. Told from each of the rescues’ perspectives, each story inspires and gives testimony to their strong belief that every pet (and everyone) deserves a second chance at life.
Stay tuned for updates!
WINDY CHicken Poet 