Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for The Flying Change. His other books of poems include: This Tilted World is Where I Live (2020), Crooked Run (2006), Understanding Fiction (1996), An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards (1975) and The Horse Show at Midnight (1966). He translated poetry from Bulgarian, French, Hebrew, Italian, and Russian into English. He was awarded the Witter Bynner Foundation Poetry Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. From 1971 to 2003, Taylor taught creative writing at American University.