Al Young's volumes of poetry include Conjugal Visits: And Other Poems in Poetry and Prose (Creative Arts Book Co, 1996), Heaven: Collected Poems, 1956-90 (1992), The Blues Don't Change: New and Selected Poems (1982), Geography of the Near Past (1976), Some Recent Fiction (1974), The Song Turning Back into Itself (1971), and Dancing: Poems (1969), which won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. He is the author of the novels Seduction by Light (1988), Ask Me Now (1980), Sitting Pretty (1976), Who Is Angelina? (1975), and Snakes: A Novel (1970). His memoirs include Drowning in the Sea of Love: Musical Memoirs (1995), Mingus-Mingus: Two Memoirs (1991, with Janet Coleman) Kind of Blue: Musical Memoirs (1984) and Bodies and Soul: Musical Memoirs (1981), which won the American Book Award. Young has also served as the editor of a number of books, including African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology (1995), and Yardbird Lives! (1978, with Ishmael Reed). His work has been widely anthologized and translated into many languages. 

Among Young's numerous honors and awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship. He lives in Palo Alto, California.