Research Fellowship, Southern Arkansas University, 2011-12; 2012-13; 2013-14; 2014-15; 2015-16.

Opal Goolsby Award for Teaching Excellence, Houston Baptist University, 1996.

Literature Panelist, Texas Commission on the Arts, 1991-1993.

Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Creative Artists Program Grant, 1989; 1993.

MacDowell Colony, Artist’s Residency, 1988.

PEN Southwest Discovery Prize for Poetry, 1987.

National Graduate Fellowship Program Fellow, United States Department of Education, 1986-1987.

Top Professor Award, Mortar Board, University of Houston, 1986.

Academy of American Poets Prize, 1981; 1985.

Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Nimrod International Journal, 1985.

Cullen Creative Writing Fellow, University of Houston, 1982-1983.

Ohio Arts Council Grant, 1982.

Henry Hoyns Fellowship in Poetry, University of Virginia, 1981-1982.

Joan Grayston Poetry Prize, University of Washington, 1981.