C.D. Wight has published more than a dozen books, including "Rising, Falling, Hovering" (2008); "Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems" (2007); and "One Big Self: An Investigation" (2003), a collaboration with photographer Deborah Luster to document Louisiana inmates.

Her book, "One With Others" (2010), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, examines an incident in Arkansas from the Civil Rights Era. Wright uses oral histories, hymns, lists, interviews, newspaper accounts and personal memories in the multi-layered book-length poem.

Among her many awards are a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, a Robert Creeley Award and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the 1990s Wright served five years as the State Poet of Rhode Island

She teaches at Brown University .