Rita Dove
Rita Dove received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for her third collection of poetry, Thomas and Beulah. From 1993–1995 she served as U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress. Her most recent poetry books are Sonata Mulattica, Collected Poems 1974-2004, and Playlist for the Apocalypse. She has also published short stories, essays, and the novel Through the Ivory Gate. Her play The Darker Face of the Earth had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1996 and its European premiere at the Royal National Theatre in London in 1999. Her song cycle Seven for Luck, with music by John Williams, was first presented at Tanglewood in 1998, and her song cycle A Standing Witness, with music by Richard Danielpour, at the Kennedy Center in 2021.
Dove’s most recent literary honors include the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award; the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2021 Gold Medal for Poetry (as the third woman and first Black poet to receive the Academy’s highest honor in its 110-year history); a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation; and a 2022 Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress. President Bill Clinton presented Ms. Dove the 1996 National Humanities Medal / Charles Frankel Prize, and President Barack Obama presented her with the 2011 National Medal of Arts, making her the only poet who has received both national medals. To date, she has received 29 honorary doctorates. She teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she is the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.
(Photo credit: Fred Viebahn)
