Lars Eighner's US Bookstore Presents The Texas Institute of Letters Authors

Ai, formerly Florence Lea Anthony, was born in Albany, Texas, on October 21, 1947. She spent most of her childhood in Tucson and places on the West Coast. She began writing at the age of 14 in response to a contest, which was held at Mount Vernon Junior High in Los Angeles, for a poem about a historical person, but her family moved back to Tucson before she could enter the contest. Many of her poems since involve historic people including Jimmy Hoffa and Marilyn Monroe. Her first book was Cruelty in 1973. She holds a BA in Japanese from the Univerity of Arizona and an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. She has taught at Oklahoma State University and in 2002-2003 held the Mitte Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University.

Dread: Poems

Dread: Poems

by Ai

Dread: Poems Fresh dramatic monologues from many characters, living and dead, real and imagined, delusional and maybe not so delusional.