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BOX 38-51 Writings File, 1971-2009
The Writings File series makes up almost one third of the collection and documents Ai’s writings in various forms, including poetry, novels, memoirs, plays and teleplays, and editorial work for magazines. Although Ai wrote first drafts in longhand, the Writings File contains only a few handwritten drafts with the bulk of the files comprised of typescripts and manuscript proofs.

Most of the poetry files consist of manuscripts and other materials for Ai’s books, although two collections of untitled poems and individual poems in various forms (handwritten, typescripts, proofs, and published) are also present. While the majority of Ai’s writings are written in the first person, they are not autobiographical. She took on the personae of historical figures or fictional persons using strong language and vivid images to convey her narrative. In later years, however, Ai wrote two poems relating to herself and her family, “Baby Florence: AKA Ai Coming Through Fire” (from No Surrender) and “The Saga of Charlie Smith” (from Dread). Also pertaining to her family and documented in the Writings File is Ai's unpublished novel “Black Blood: A Tale of Love, Death, Race, and Sex.” The plot is based loosely on the suspicious death of her cousin, a young man accidentally shot while in the home of a young white girl in 1961. Although Ai revised the novel several times, it was never published.

Also featured in the Writings File are notebooks that include poetry, jottings of ideas for poems and projects, to do lists, and occasionally drawings. A drawing in Ai's 1992 notebook reveals her distress when the poetry editor at Houghton, Mifflin and Company described her book Greed as pornographic and not appropriate for them. The second part of the drawing displays Ai's triumph with W.W. Norton & Company welcoming the book for publication. The Writings File also includes material relating to Ai’s readings, talks, and workshops about poetry.

Material types include correspondence, poems, book drafts, novels, plays and teleplays, notebooks, reviews, notes, broadsides, short stories, blurbs, posters, royalty statements, permission requests, business cards, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
BOX 38 Blurbs, 1999-2002, undated
BOX 38 Caprice, 1996
BOX 38 Cimarron Review, 2000-2007
(2 folders)
BOX 38 Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1978-2000
BOX 39 Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1978-2000
BOX 39 Masters thesis, "Slice," 1971
BOX 39 Memoirs, undated
BOX 39 "Arrival"
BOX 39 "Crazy White Man"
BOX 39 Miscellaneous, 1981, 1990-1993, 1999-2002, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 39 Notebooks, 1988
BOX 39 Notebooks, 1991, undated
BOX 39 Notebooks, 1992, undated
BOX 40 Notebooks, 1998, undated
(6 folders)
BOX 40 Notes and ideas, 1995, undated
BOX 40 Permissions, 1992-2008
BOX 41 Permissions, 1992-2008
BOX 41 Plays and teleplays, undated
BOX 41 Novels
BOX 41 "Black Blood: A Tale of Love, Death, Race, and Sex"
BOX 41 Early drafts, undated
BOX 41 Set A
BOX 41 Set B
BOX 41 Set C
BOX 41 Set D
BOX 41 Set E
BOX 41 Set F
(2 folders)
BOX 42 Partial drafts and fragments, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 42 Revised drafts, undated
BOX 42 Set A
(2 folders)
BOX 42 Set B
(2 folders)
BOX 42 Set C
BOX 42 Set D
(2 folders)
BOX 43 Set E
BOX 43 W.W. Norton & Company, comments, 1996, undated
BOX 43 "The Lie of Redemption" (unpublished), undated
BOX 43 Set A
BOX 43 Set B
BOX 43 "The Sin Eater" (unpublished), 1998, undated
BOX 43 Poetry
BOX 43 Books
BOX 43 Cruelty: Poems (1973), 1973, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 43 Dread (2003), 2002
(2 folders)
BOX 44 Dread (2003), 2002
(3 folders)
BOX 44 Dread (2003), 2003
BOX 44 Fate: New Poems (1991)
BOX 44 Early drafts, undated
BOX 44 Final draft, 1990-1992
BOX 44 General, 1991, undated
BOX 44 Proofs, 1990
(2 folders)
BOX 44 "Ghost Pain" (unpublished), undated
BOX 45 Greed (1993)
BOX 45 Drafts, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 45 General, 1992-1993, undated
BOX 45 Proofs, 1993
(5 folders)
BOX 45 Killing Floor: Poems (1979), undated
BOX 46 Killing Floor: Poems (1979), undated
BOX 46 No Surrender (2010)
BOX 46 Drafts, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 46 General, 2006-2009, undated
BOX 46 Sin: Poems (1986)
BOX 46 Drafts, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 46 General, 1986-1989, undated
BOX 46 Proofs, 1985
BOX 46 Vice: New and Selected Poems (1999)
BOX 46 Drafts, 1997, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 46 General, 1998-1999, undated
BOX 47 Broadsides, 1981, 2003-2004 See also Container OV 3, same heading
BOX 47 Collections, untitled, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 47 Individual poems
BOX 47 Drafts and typescripts, 1987, 1993-1995, 2003, undated
(7 folders)
BOX 48 Publications and proofs, 1991-2005, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 48 Readings and talks, 1985-2007, undated See also Container OV 3, same heading
(11 folders)
BOX 49 Unidentified writings, undated
BOX 49 Workshops, 1989-1991, 1997-2002, undated See also Container OV 3,Two posters, "The Healing Power of Poetry with Ai"
(2 folders)
BOX 49 Writings by others
BOX 49 Barnes, Russ, undated
BOX 49 Chronological file, 1985-1993, 2008
(5 folders)
BOX 49 Chronological file, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 50 Chronological file, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 50 Livingston, Chip
BOX 50 "Naming Ceremony: A Novel," undated
(2 folders)
BOX 50 Poetry and short stories, undated
BOX 51 W.W. Norton & Company, 1992-2009, undated
(3 folders)
BOX OV 1-OV 3 Oversize, 1976-2003
The Oversize series is comprised of posters, calendars, magazines, broadsides, and a photograph portrait of Ai.
Listed and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the material was separated. The items are physically grouped and housed by size.
BOX OV 2 Correspondence
BOX OV 2 Posters, National Poetry Month, 2000 (Container 3, Correspondence, 2000, Jan.-Feb.)
BOX OV 1 Subject File
BOX OV 1 Calendars, 1995, 2001 (Container 8, same heading)
BOX OV 1 Interview (magazine), 1988 (Container 8, Dafoe, Willem)
BOX OV 1 Writer's Chronicle, interview with Ai, 2003 (Container 10, Press about Ai)
BOX OV 1 Portrait of Ai, 1976 (Container 13, Portraits)
BOX OV 2 Oklahoma State University File
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