Iron Horse Review, Photofinish contest winner, 2016.
Being Here, semifinalist, Quills Edge Press
Red Paint Hill Publishing Bryant-Lysembee Editor’s Prize for Them Gone, 2015
Short Poem Winner, Science Fiction Poetry Association, 2015
Finalist, Washington Prize Word Works Poetry Competition, 2015
Walker Foundation Scholarship to Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, 2005
Cave Canem Fellow, 2002-2004
Two Voices/Two Pages Winner Geva Theater 2004
New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, 2003
Artists Crossroads Grant for Words in Motion, 2003
Awardee in the Nonrhyming Poetry Writer's Digest annual competition, 2002
Honorable Mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (2000) edited by Ellen
Datlow and Terri Windling: for "The Becoming" (DARK MATTER)
Artist-in-Residence, Women’s Studio Workshop, 2001
Fellowship, Hurston-Wright Writers’ Week, 2001
Poet-in-Residence, Chautauqua Institution, 1997
Writer's Digest Book Awards, 1996
Ragdale U.S.–Africa Fellowship, 1993
The International Who's Who in Poetry
Finalist, 1991 Open Voice competition
National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1990
Finalist, Barnard New Women Poets Series -1990
Finalist, MacDonald's Black Literary Achievement Award, 1989
The International Authors and Writers Who's Who
New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, 1987
Two Thousand Notable American Women
Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, and Poets
Finalist, Walt Whitman Award, Spring 1983
Sterling Brown Award, Williams College, Spring 1975
Academy of American Poets, Honorable Mention, 1975, 1974, 1973, Williams College