Poetry
- 1983: Green Dragons (Wesleyan, ISBN 0-8195-2114-0)
- 1986: Snug Harbor (Wesleyan, ISBN 0-8195-5134-1)
- 1990: The Public Mirror (Wesleyan, ISBN 0-8195-2165-5)
- 1993:The Book of Complaints (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 978-0-88748-157-4)
- 1998: Dithyrambs: Choral Lyrics (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 0-88748-253-8)
- 2004: Prague Winter (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 978-0-88748-405-6)
- 2011: Scorpio Rising: Selected Poems (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 0-88748-534-0)
- 2016: Swastika into Lotus (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 978-0-88748-608-1)
Memoir
- 2001: The Republic of Burma Shave (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 0-88748-328-3)
- 2007: The Years of Smashing Bricks (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 978-0-88748-468-1)
- 2014: Raising Girls in Bohemia: Meditations of an American Father (Three Rooms Press, ISBN 978-1-941110-06-5)
- 2022: Poets and the Fools Who Love Them: A Memoir in Essays (LSU Press, ISBN 978-0-80717-663-4)
Novels
- 2001: Mystic Pig: A Novel of New Orleans (Smallmouth Press, ISBN 1-58848-025-9)
- 2008: Mystic Pig (Paperback Rerelease, Oleander Press LTD, ISBN 978-0-906672-77-8)
- Confessions of a Waiter (unpublished), Winner of the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Competition
Short Story Collections
- 1996: Prague, USA (Portals Press, ISBN 0-916620-96-4)
- 2018: The Great Czech Navy (Carnegie Mellon University Press, ISBN 9780887486425)
As Anthology Editor
• 2000: The New Orleans Review: Ten Years After the Velvet Revolution