Flanders is the author of six books of poems, three of which were published posthumously: Leaving and Coming Back (1980), The Students of Snow (1982), Timepiece (1988), Sudden Plenty (2003), Manifesto d’Amore (2005), and Dandelion Greens (2009).
She taught at Punahou School in Hawaii, Clark University, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Pittsburgh, and raised three children in DC with her husband Steven. Flanders was the recipient of a Discovery/The Nation Award, the Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press, and three Pushcart Prizes. She died of cancer at age 61.