Rita Dove Biography, Age, Career, Net worth, Family, Death
Born August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio, the 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 colleague outside of high school.
She studied in Germany on a Fulbright scholarship and then taught creative writing at Arizona State University. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for the Thomas and Beulah poetry book. Other Dove books include Mother Love and Sonata Mulattica.
Education and Personal Life
Born August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio, Rita Dove developed a love of learning and literature that encouraged reading. She was honored as a presidential scholarship, ranked among the top 100 high school students in the country, and attended the University of Miami, Ohio, graduating in 1973 with summa cum laude.
She then studied abroad in Germany, before returning to the United States and earning her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa.
Family
In the mid-1970s, she met fellow writer Fred Viebahn, also from Germany, while studying at the University from Iowa The couple married in 1979 and have a daughter, Aviva.
Distinguished Writer
Dove established an excellent academic career, eventually teaching at the University of Virginia and becoming a respected and award-winning poet. At the start of her career, she published publishing books and presented collections such as La Maison Jaune au coin (1980) and Le Musée (1983). Dove is known not only for the layered eloquence of her language and ideas but also for portraying parts of the experience of blacks in the United States, both personally and collectively.
In 1986, she published Thomas and Beulah, a semi-autobiographical look at the lives of their grandparents, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry the following year. Other books include Grace Notes (1989) and Mother Love (1995), while her 1999 work “Bus with Rosa Parks” was named the New York Times’ Distinguished Book of the Year.
Named Poet Laureate
In May 1993, Dove was called a winning poet in the United States, a position previously held by brands such as Robert Penn Warren and Joseph Brodsky. She was the first African American nominated for the position, as well as the first and youngest woman at 41 years of age. (African American writers Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks were counselors at the Library of Poetry, which was replaced in 1985 by the title of poet counselor)
In 1996, after completing her recipient, Dove received the National Medal for the Humanities from President Bill Clinton, the same year she won the Heinz Prize for the Arts and Humanities.
Lyricist
In addition to her poetry, Dove also wrote prose, which can be seen in the collection of short stories Fifth Sunday (1985), the novel Through Ivory and the Door (1992), and the selection of essays The Poetic World ( 1995). She also wrote Darker Faces of the Earth (1994) and collaborated as a lyricist with various composers.
Dove was also an editor, producing the best American poetry in 2000 and a penguin anthology of 20th century American poetry; the latter was published the same year as Datt’s critically acclaimed poem by Sonata Mulattica and a long book by the biracial classical violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower.
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— Rita Dove (@Rita_Dove5B) December 11, 2012