Rita Dove
(1952– )
Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, and earned a B.A. at Miami University of Ohio and an M.F.A at the University of Iowa. She studied for a year in Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship. Since then she has lived for periods of time in Berlin. Dove has been a member of the faculty of the University of Virginia since 1989; in 1993, she was named national Poet Laureate.
Much of Dove’s poetry, blending oral traditions with literary concerns, is autobiographical. Many of her poems range through centuries of the African American historical past, but Dove’s work embraces a range of subjects. She says that while race is an important topic in her work, many of her poems are not focused on race; instead, her poems are focused on humanity—which is sometimes black.
Dove’s collection of poems called Thomas and Beulah (1986) won her a Pulitzer Prize. Other collections include The Yellow House on the Corner (1980), Museum (1983), and The Other Side of the House (1988). She has also written short stories, Fifth Sunday (1985), and a novel, Through the Ivory Gate (1992).
