Sapphire is the author of American Dreams, a collection of poetry, which was cited by Publisher's Weekly as "One of the strongest debut collections of the nineties." Her novel, Push, won the Book-of-the-Month Club Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s First Novelist Award, and in Great Britain, the Mind Book of the Year Award. Push was named by The Village Voice as one of the top twenty-five books of 1996 and by TIMEOUT New York as one of the top ten books of 1996. Push was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work of Fiction. About her last book of poetry, Poet's & Writer's Magazine wrote, "With her soul on the line in each verse, her latest collection, Black Wings & Blind Angels, retains Sapphire's incendiary power to win hearts and singe minds." Sapphire’s work has been translated into thirteen languages and has been adapted for stage in the United States and Europe. She has performed her work at the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café, Franklin Furnace, the Bowery Poetry Club, Literaturwerkstadt in Berlin, and Apples & Snakes in London.

Sapphire’s poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in The Black Scholar, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Teacher’s Voice, The New Yorker, Spin, and Bomb. In February of 2007 Arizona State University presented PUSHing Boundaries, PUSHing Art: A Symposium on the Works of Sapphire.

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, the film adaption of Sapphire’s novel, Push, recently won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at Sundance (2009). Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire is the only film ever to win both the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals Audience Awards. It is a vibrant, honest, and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome.

Sapphire has taught literature, fiction and poetry workshops at SUNY Purchase, Trinity College, and the Writer’s Voice in New York City. She has taught graduate writing workshops in MFA programs at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Brooklyn College, and at the New School University. In 1990 she received an Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Award from Joyce Dinkins, then First Lady of New York City, for her work with literacy students in Harlem and the Bronx.