Her style is credited with an evocative simplicity reminiscent of Emily Dickinson, though it also contains the kind of expansive colloquial expression attributed to Walt Whitman. Derricotte is also known for treating sexual topics with candor, and for exploring the shadows that surround difficult and painful realities. “Her poems begin in ordinary experiences but she dissects the routine definitions supplied by society as a way towards making discoveries about what unsuspected resources the self actually contains,” wrote Jon Woodson in Contemporary Women Poets. Toi is a co-founder of Cave Canem, an organization dedicated to supporting and encouraging African-American poets, for which she received the National Book Award’s highest honor in 2016.