In 1979, a book of poetry by a writer known simply as Ai caused a small sensation in the literary world. Killing Floor—Ai’s second book of poems—won the Lamont Poetry Prize of the American Academy of Poets, an award chosen by such peers as Philip Levine and Maxine Kumin. It launched the her into the upper echelons of literary society, where she earned further awards, endowments, and a position teaching at Oklahoma State University.
The power of this early work has diminished and fallen out of discourse over the years because Killing Floor went out of print. But ever since Carl Adamshick, main editor of Portland nonprofit poetry press Tavern Books, stumbled across a copy, he and his team have been working to republish the book and bring Killing Floor to contemporary readers.