| Year | Title | Publisher | Prize Amount | Judges |
| 1979 | Killing Floor | Houghton Mifflin | $5,000 | Maxine Kumin |
| Philip Levine | ||||
| Charles Wright |
Ai, who described herself as half Japanese, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Black, Irish, Southern Cheyenne, and Comanche, was born in Albany, Texas, on October 21, 1947. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She received a BA in Japanese from the University of Arizona and an MFA from the University of California at Irvine.