Alexander's first book of poetry, The Venus Hottentot (1990), was praised widely and the title poem is often anthologized.

In 2004, Graywolf Press published a new book of essays by Alexander. The Black Interior takes a look at the role of the African American artist, both in the black community and in the larger dominant white culture.

Smoke, published by BOA Editions in 2000, is a collection of poems by Dorianne Laux. These works vividly portray such diverse topics as the portrait of a daughter, a wife's erotic longing for her husband, and popular culture.

Winner of the thirteenth annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, Echolocations, by Diane Thiel, explores various subjects connected to themes of dislocation, landscape, and memory. Thiel's poems stretch across time and continent to include a parent's memories of being a boy in Germany during World War II. This collection...