• 2000 Duncan YMCA Writer's Voice Fellow
• Illinois Arts Council Artist Roster
• 2000 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship
• 2001 Chicago Sun Times Poetry Award.
• 2001 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Awards
• 2001-2 Ragdale Fellow
• 2004 National Poetry Series
• 2004 NEA grant
• 2006 Whiting Writers' Award
• 2007 Lannan residency

Poetry

• "When I Speak of Blues Be Clear", Cave Canem
• "martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935", Poetry Foundation
• "harris county chain gang"; "home again"; "martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935", Perihelion

Anthologies

• Soulfires: Young Black Men in Love and Violence (1996)
• Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry (2000)
• Dark Matter 2: Reading the Bones (2004)

Non-fiction

Tyehimba Jess ... coaxes an astonishingly rich world from the wood and steel scraps of the life he finds before him. He chronicles the story of Leadbelly ... the killer, the lover, the victim, the son, the greatest bluesman of his time...and he has the chops to animate this complex man.