Craft: Ai

Ai (b. Florence Anthony, 1947-2010) wrote extreme narrative poems, pushing narrative as far as possible. Known for her unsettling, and thoroughly absorbing persona poems, Ai changed her name to the Japanese word for love when she was 26.

Ai described herself as “1/2 Japanese, 1/8 Choctaw, 1/4 Black, and 1/16 Irish,” and her first book, Cruelty, was published in 1973. This was followed by Killing Floor (1979), Sin (1986), Fate (1991), Greed (1993), Vice: New and Selected Poems (1999), Dread (2003), and No Surrender, which was published posthumously.

Ai attended the University of California at Irvine's M.F.A program from 1969 to 1971, where she studied with Charles Wright and Donald Justice. She was a visiting instructor at SUNY Binghamton University during 1973–74 academic year. After winning the National Book Award for Vice she became a tenured professor and the vice president of the Native American Faculty and Staff Association at Oklahoma State University until her death.

Ai mastered the dramatic monologue, a form that can cause consternation among young writers who may ask “What right do I have to speak in another’s voice, from another’s experience?”