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Rita Dove Biography
Rita Dove Biography
Rita Dove Biography
Poet Laureate Consultant by the Library of Congress. She has also won the Pulitzer for
her book Thomas and Beulah.
IN THESE GROUPS
QUOTES
We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there's a
tendency to treat everything on the surface level and process things quickly. That is
antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to
poetry.
Rita Dove
Synopsis
Born on August 28, 1952 in Akron, Ohio, African-American poet Rita Dove loved poetry and
music from a young age. She was an exceptional student and was invited to the White House as a
Presidential Scholar out of high school. She studied in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship, later
teaching creative writing at Arizona State University. She has won numerous awards for her
work, including a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for the book of poetry Thomas and Beulah. Other books
from Dove include Mother Love and Sonata Mulattica.
Esteemed Writer
Dove established a fine career in academia, eventually teaching at the University of Virginia and
becoming an esteemed, award-winning poet. She published chapbooks early in her career and
made her mark with collections like The Yellow House on the
Corner (1980) and Museum (1983). Dove is known not only for the layered eloquence of her
language and ideas but also for portraying portions of the black experience in America, both on a
personal and collective front.
In 1986 she published Thomas and Beulah, a semi-autobiographical look at the lives of her
grandparents that won the poetry Pulitzer Prize the following year. Other books include Grace
Notes (1989) and Mother Love (1995), while her 1999 work On the Bus With Rosa Parks was
hailed as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.