Author Series: Rita Dove

2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Rita Dove sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.

Dove is an American poet, story writer, and script writer. In 1987, Dove’s book of poems based off the lives of her maternal grandparents, Thomas and Beulah, won the Pulitzer Prize. Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 2003 Emily Couric Leadership Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 1996 National Humanities Medal.

Dove has published poetry collectionsincluding The Yellow House on the CornerMuseum, and On the Bus with Rosa Parks; a book of short stories, Fifth Sunday; the novel Through the Ivory Gate; essays under the title The Poet's World; and the play The Darker Face of the Earth.

Rita Dove Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)