Photo by Fred Viebahn

Rita Dove

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate, is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include Playlist for the Apocalypse, Sonata Mulattica, and the National Book Award-shortlisted Collected Poems: 1974-2004. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023 she received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives in Charlottesville, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.

Rita Dove

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate, is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include Playlist for the Apocalypse, Sonata Mulattica, and the National Book Award-shortlisted Collected Poems: 1974-2004. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023 she received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives in Charlottesville, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.

Awards

Commended — New York Times Notable Selection, 1999

Shortlisted — National Book Critics Circle Award, 1999

Winner — New York Times Notable Selection, 2004

Winner — Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, 2010

Nominated — NAACP Image Award, 2017

Shortlisted — National Book Award, 2016

Winner — Library of Virginia Literary Award, 2017

Shortlisted — NAACP Image Award, 2022

Shortlisted — Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2021

Shortlisted — Library of Virginia Literary Award, 2022

Books by Rita Dove

  • Collected Poems: 1974–2004

    Rita Dove

    E Book, 2016

    Three decades of powerful lyric poetry from a virtuoso of the English language in one unabridged volume.
  • Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems

    Rita Dove

    E Book, 2021

    A piercing, unflinching new volume offers necessary music for our tumultuous present, from “perhaps the best public poet we have” (The Boston Globe).
  • Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems

    Rita Dove

    Paperback, 2023

    A piercing, unflinching new volume offers necessary music for our tumultuous present, from “perhaps the best public poet we have” (The Boston Globe)