Career
In 1976, Viking Press published her only collection of short stories, The Lists of the past Day-old Baby Rats is one of her famous stories, which was chosen and read in 2010 by writer Lorrie Moore on the "New Yorker" podcast with fiction editor Deborah Treisman. Hayden"s story collection was recently selected by bestselling author Cheryl Strayed for republication with Pharos Editions out of Seattle, Washington, and will be published in May 2014.
Hayden was born in Larchmont, New York, and educated at Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private girls" school in Greenwich, Connecticut, and at Radcliffe College, from which she graduated cum laude in 1961 with a Bachelors degree in English.
In 1966 she joined the staff of The New Yorker and worked there as the newsbreak editor for 16 years, until her death. During this time, she published ten short stories in the magazine (republished in The Lists of the Past).
Shortly following the publication of her collection in 1976, a breast cancer diagnosis and rapid decline into ill health and advancing alcoholism appear to have prevented significant further writing. (Additional research needed on uncollected stories published after 1976).
Hayden was the daughter of Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and poet Phyllis McGinley.
Hayden died of cancer September 14, 1981. She was 42.
