C.D. Wright has described Roberson’s work as “lyric poetry of meticulous design and lasting emotional significance," comparing its musical qualities to the work of saxophonist Steve Lacy, jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Ed Roberson is a former professor of literature and creative writing at Rutgers University. He has taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. Roberson is the recipient of the Stephen Henderson Critics Award for Achievement in Literature, and has also won an LA Times Book Award, the 2008 Shelley Memorial Award from The Poetry Society of America, the 1998 National Poetry Series Award, and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award.