Ai is a native of the American Southwest. Her critically acclaimed first book, Cruelty appeared in 1973.  Her second book, The Killing Floor, was the 1978 Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets.  Winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Poetry, Ai's latest release, Vice includes selections from her first two books, selections from Sin, Fate and Greed, and a book-length offering of new poems that render our seemingly familiar world through a series of masterful and revealing monologues.