To date, Mayes has published six books of poetry:
Magnetism (1987),
First Language (1990),
Works and Days (1999),
Speed of Life (1999),
Bodysong (1999) and
Obbligato (2025). He has also published the individual poem
To Remain. In 1999,
Works and Days received the Associated Writing Programs Award Series in Poetry accolade. His poems have appeared in
American Poetry Review,
Gettysburg Review,
Iowa Review,
Massachusetts Review,
New England Review,
The New Yorker,
Poetry (Chicago),
TriQuarterly,
Virginia Quarterly Review, and
The Best American Poetry. His books have received the
Juniper Prize, the Gesù Award, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award, and the Associated Writing Programs Prize. He's also received the
Cecil Hemley Memorial Award and the Gordon Barber Memorial Award from the
Poetry Society of America, and a
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Mayes also collaborated with his wife Frances Mayes to write
In Tuscany (photographs by Bob Krist),
Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style from the Heart of Italy (photographs by Steven Rothfeld), and
The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from My Italian Kitchen (photographs by Steven Rothfeld). ==References==