During the course of her career, Alexander was a University Grants Commission Fellow at Kerala University, Writer in Residence at the National University of Singapore, and a Frances Wayland Collegium Lecturer at Brown University.[25] She also held the Martha Walsh Pulver Residency for a poet at Yaddo.[25] In addition:
- 1979 Visiting fellow at the University of Paris-Sorbonne[32]
- 1988 Center for American Culture Studies, Columbia University, Writer in Residence[12]
- 1993 MacDowell Colony fellow[12]
- 1994 American College, Madurai, India, Poet in Residence[12]
- 1995 Arts Council of England, International Writer in Residence[12]
- 1995 Intercultural Resource Center, Columbia University, Artist/Humanist In Residence[12]
- 1995 Minnesota Asian American Renaissance, Lila Wallace Writer in Residence[12]
- 2003 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency[12][33]
- 2008 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow[34]
- 2011 Fulbright Specialists Program[35]
- 2014 National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla[36]
- 2016 Poet in Residence in Venice[7]
