When one has two books out, each with her image across two-thirds of the cover, it’s a question we’re invited to ask. The answer is no, with an asterisk.
Looks may not be everything (very often the best writers resemble mole people) but they aren’t nothing.
Her poetry, at least judging by the samples at the NYT, is dreadful, by the way:
That horrible, effort-free American “chopped up prose” crap.
Notice that the first book with her portrait on the cover is a novel. Who does that??
In other words, this author is all about being a celebrity “writer in residence” type for a living, and is a for-shit poet.