Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952 in Akron, Ohio, USA) is an American poet and author. In 1987 she became the second African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (after Gwendolyn Brooks in 1950). From 1993 to 1995 she served as the first Black and the youngest Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress
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Life and career
Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952 as the daughter of the first African American research chemist who broke the race barrier in the tire industry. Her mother, Elvira Dove nee Hord, had been an honors student in high school and loved to read literature -- a passion her daughter would share with her early on. A 1970 Presidential Scholar as one of the 100 top American high school graduates that year, Rita Dove graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Miami University in 1973 and received her MFA from the University of Iowa in 1977. In 1974/75 she held a Fulbright Scholarship at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany. She received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry and served as Poet Laureate of the United States / Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1993-1995; 1999/2000 she was Special Bicentennial Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress, and from 2004-2006 she was Poet Laureate of Virginia. In 1993, at age 40, Dove was elected poet laureate of the United States, making her both the youngest and the first African American author to hold that position. As poet laureate she concentrated on spreading the word about poetry and increasing public awareness of the benefits of literature. Since 1989 she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English. Dove lives in Charlottesville with her husband, the German-born writer Fred Viebahn. They have a grown daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn. Before moving to Virginia, she taught creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989. Dove's most famous work is Thomas and Beulah, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in 1986, a collection of poems loosely based on the lives of her maternal grandparents, for which she received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987. She has published eight volumes of poetry (most recently "American Smooth", 2004), a book of short stories ("Fifth Sunday", 1985), a collection of essays ("The Poet's World", 1995), the novel "Through the Ivory Gate" (1992) and the play "The Darker Face of the Earth" (1994; revised stage version 1996), which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996 (first European production: Royal National Theatre, London, 1999). She collaborated with composer John Williams on the song cycle "Seven for Love" (first performance: Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, 1998, conducted by the composer), and for "America's Millennium", the White House's 1999/2000 New Year's celebration, Ms. Dove contributed — in a live reading at the Lincoln Memorial, accompanied by John Williams's music — a poem to Steven Spielberg's documentary The Unfinished Journey. Her work is featured in American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006), and in many other anthologies. Besides her Pulitzer Prize, she has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them 22 honorary doctorates, the 1996 National Humanities Medal / Charles Frankel Prize, the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities and, most recently, the 2006 Common Wealth of Distinguished Service Award for Literature. From 1994-2000 she was a senator of the national academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, and she is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In addition to her literary work, she also plays the viola da gamba.
Works and Publications
Rita Dove’s work cannot be pinned down with regard to a specific era or school in contemporary literature; her wide-ranging topics and the precise poetic language with which she captures complex emotions defy easy categorization.
- (1980)
- (1983)
- (1985)
- Thomas and Beulah: poems (1986)
- (1989)
- (1992)
- Selected Poems (1993)
- (1994/1996)
- (1995)
- Seven for Luck (song cycle, music by John Williams) 1998
- (1999)
- (2004)
Awards Received
- the NAACP Great American Artist Award
- Glamour magazine's "Woman of the Year" Award
- the New York Public Library's "Literary Lion" citation
- Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Acievement
- Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities
- Charles Frankel Prize/National Medal in the Humanities
- Sara Lee Frontrunner Award
- Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Bibliography
- American Smooth (poems). W.W. Norton, 2004.
- On the Bus with Rosa Parks (poems). W.W. Norton, 1999.
- Mother Love (poems). W. W. Norton, 1995.
- The Poet's World (essays). The Library of Congress, 1995.
- The Darker Face of the Earth (play). Story Line Press, 1994; revised 2nd ed., 1996; updated 3rd ed., 2000.
- Selected Poems. Pantheon/Vintage, 1993.
- Through the Ivory Gate (novel). Pantheon Books, 1992.
- Grace Notes (poems). W.W. Norton, 1989.
- Thomas and Beulah (poems). Carnegie Mellon, 1986.
- Fifth Sunday (short stories). Callaloo Fiction Series, 1985.
- Museum (poems). Carnegie Mellon, 1983.
- The Yellow House on the Corner (poems). Carnegie Mellon, 1980
- Rita Dove(essays). www.bsu.edu/web/gstrecker/PoetryProject/ritadove.htm
External links
- The Rita Dove Homepage
- Rita Dove's comprehensive biography
- Rita Dove at the Academy of American Poets
- Rita Dove: Online Poems at Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Rita Dove interview at Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Poet Vision Presents: Rita Dove Reads Her Poetry Webcast (Library of Congress)
- Rita Dove: Online Poems at alittlepoetry.com
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