Rita Dove

Rita Dove is the winner of the 2018 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize and poet laureate of the United States from 1993-1995, Dove is the only poet to have received both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. She is currently Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia and poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. Her Collected Poems: 1974-2004 (2016, NAACP Image Award in Poetry) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her other poetry collections are Museum (1983), Grace Notes (1989), Selected Poems (1993), Mother Love (1995), On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999, New York Times Notable Selection, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), American Smooth (2004, New York Times Notable Selection), and Sonata Mulattica (2009, winner of Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, currently being produced as a documentary by Spark Media). In addition to poetry, Dove has written several works of prose, including the essay collection The Poet’s World (1995), the novel Through the Ivory Gate (1992), and the short story collection Fifth Sunday (1985). She lives in Charlottesville with her husband, the novelist Fred Viebahn, and competes in ballroom dance.