Ai (1947–2010) was born Florence Anthony in Albany, Texas, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Of mixed Japanese, Choctaw-Chickasaw, African American, and Irish ancestry, she legally changed her name to Ai, the Japanese word for love. She earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Known for graphic, unflinching dramatic monologues spoken in the voices of murderers, politicians, and ordinary people, her work confronts the violence embedded in American culture and psyche. Her collection Vice: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton, 1999) won the National Book Award for Poetry. Other major works include Killing Floor (1979), which received the Lamont Poetry Award, and Sin (1986), which won an American Book Award. She taught at Oklahoma State University until her death.