• The Capitalist and the Critic: J. P. Morgan, Roger Fry, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of Texas Press, 2016
  • The Works of Alain Locke, Oxford University Press, 2012
  • And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen, University of Chicago Press, 2012
  • Alain Locke: Biography of a Philosopher, University of Chicago Press, 2008
  • Marianne Moore: A Literary Life, Macmillan, 1990
  • Gary Snyder’s Vision: Poetry and the Real Work, University of Missouri Press, 1983, 1986
  • Donald Barthelme’s Fiction, University of Missouri Press, 1982
  • Words to that Effect, Seven Woods Press, 1981
  • The Fierce Embrace, University of Missouri Press, 1979
  • Common Elegies, New River Press, 1977