News | Rita Dove

Rita Dove Nominated for LA Book Prize for Poetry

February 23, 2022

Playlist for the Apocalypse among Orion Magazine's 12 Poetry Recommendations for Black History Month

February 23, 2022

Rita Dove Featured Guest in "Break Out" Poetry Event

February 15, 2022

Rita Dove Among "40 Black Writers Whose Work Changed The World"

February 08, 2022

Rita Dove in conversation with Glory Edim and Salamishah Tillet

February 08, 2022

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Recent and Latest News

Rita Dove's in-person induction into the American Philosophical Society

November 18, 2025

Rita Dove, Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing, had been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society three decades ago, but only now, at the society's 2025 autumn meeting in San Diego, was able to participate in person for the first time to be officially inducted. (Sadly, none of the 1996 signatories are still alive.) The American Philosophical Society is the oldest honorary society in North America, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. It counts among its members numerous U.S. presidents, including the first four (George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison), but also Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and many other luminaries of the 18th through the 21st centuries.

The attached photos depict the official 1996 certificate and this year's first time in-person attendees, including Harvard University president Alan Garber (standing, second from the right), who had hooded Rita Dove in 2018 for her Harvard honorary doctorate while he was provost, and Swarthmore College president Valerie Smith (sitting, second from the left).
Rita Dove Featured in the Adroit Journal Interview

November 03, 2025

Read the interview online at: https://theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-five/a-conversation-with-rita-dove/
Rita Dove's poem "For the Birds" featured in the New Yorker

October 23, 2025

Check out Rita Dove's poem "For the Birds" in The New Yorker's October 27, 2025 print issue. It is also available online, here:
“For the Birds” | The New Yorker
Rita Dove Appears on "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip"

October 16, 2025

See Rita Dove's feature on "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip", produced by PBS Books and the Library of Congress, that highlights the literary history of the state of Ohio.

Streaming now on YouTube and Facebook!
Rita Dove to Perform at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival with Njioma Grevious and William Ransom: Tickets Available Now!

July 29, 2025

Coming up at the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina:
Rita Dove, readings from "Sonata Mulattica".
Njioma Grevious, violin and William Ransom, piano, playing Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata (also known as "The Bridgetower Sonata").
Saturday, August 2, at 5 PM in Highlands
Sunday, August 3, at 5 PM in Cashiers

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Rita Dove to join the Irish Arts Center's 16th Annual PoetryFest

July 22, 2025

Rita Dove will be joining the Irish Arts Center in New York City this fall for their 16th Annual PoetryFest! Tickets can be reserved as of July 22. Learn more about her partnering with Paul Muldoon on December 7 (twice!) as well as the other events, here: https://irishartscenter.org/event/16th-annual-poetryfest
World Premiere of 'Bellringer: Celebrating the Poetry of Rita Dove' featured in The Daily Progress

June 19, 2025

A feature on the premiere of "Bellringer: Celebrating the Poetry of Rita Dove", presented by Early Music Access Project at the UVA Rotunda on June 21 and Blackfriars Playhouse at American Shakespeare Center in Staunton on June 22. To read the full article by Jane Sathe, click here.
Rita Dove poems in New Yorker poetry anthology

April 10, 2025

Four of Rita Dove's poems can be found in the recently published anthology "A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker 1925-2025": "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove", "Incarnation in Phoenix", "Pedestrian Crossing, Charlottesville" and "Last Words".
Rita Dove interview with WRITING OUT LOUD now available

April 08, 2025

In 2010 Teresa Miller, founder & former executive director of the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, conducted an excellent interview with Rita Dove for PBS affiliate OETA. Long widely inaccessible, it is now available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oENyftYVqKI
STANDING WITNESS AT CARNEGIE HALL!

March 19, 2025

Last month the Los Angeles performance of composer Richard Danielpour's and poet Rita Dove's song cycle "Standing Witness" had to be canceled. Wondrously, however, a new venue opened up on the other side of the country! On April 16, the Orchestra of St. Luke's will present star mezzo-soprano Susan Graham at Carnegie Hall for the 75 minute tour de force.

For more information and tickets, click here.
Rita Dove's "Prose in a Small Space" featured as Poem-A-Day

March 16, 2025

On Sunday, March 16, 2025, Rita Dove's poem "Prose in a Small Space" was featured as Poem-A-Day on the Academy of American Poets' website. The archived version, including the sound file of her reading the poem and a short intro, can be found here.
Tania Leon's "Singsong" featuring Rita Dove's poetry to make New York premiere in 2026

March 17, 2025

In the New York premiere of Singsong, visionary composer Tania León sets to music the hard-edged “cricket poems” of US Poet Laureate (and fellow Pulitzer winner) Rita Dove, creating a rhythmically charged dialogue between the choir’s kaleidoscopic colors and the virtuosic flute inventions of MacArthur Fellow Claire Chase. This piece and others will be performed by the three-time Grammy-winning choir The Crossing at Carnegie Hall on March 24, 2026.

For more information about the performance, click here.
Rita Dove featured in The Cavalier Daily

February 24, 2025

In an insightful feature interview with UVA's student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, Rita Dove reflects on "the resonance of unrecorded stories" and "her approach to writing and teaching". To read the feature by Sophie Hay, click here.
Rita Dove to give 2025 Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading

March 17, 2025

On March 30, 2025, Rita Dove will give the 2025 Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading at the Baltimore Museum of Art Meyerhoff Auditorium. The reading begins at 2:30 pm and will be followed by a book signing.

The Joshua Ringel Memorial Fund honors CTY (Center for Talented Youth) alumnus and avid poetry lover Joshua Ringel and his parents, Mel and Barbara. The fund supports the arts in Baltimore by bringing a distinguished poet to the city each year for a free public poetry reading.

The event is free and open to the public. You can register and find more information here.
Rita Dove interview in Literary Matters Magazine

February 14, 2025

A major new and comprehensive interview with Rita Dove: https://www.literarymatters.org/17-2-the-unguarded-territory-of-thought-a-conversation-with-rita-dove/
Rita Dove documentary now available free of charge

February 05, 2025

Eleven years after its premiere, Eduardo Montes-Bradley's documentary "Rita Dove - An American Poet" is now available free of charge on YouTube. It was first shown at The Paramount Theater in Charlottesville on January 31, 2014. It is 48 minutes long and contains a wealth of documentary material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mao8itrJafI

Also, there is a recording of the premiere events at the Paramount Theater that includes an homage to Rita Dove by former Dave Matthews Band violinist Boyd Tinsley and a conversation of Rita with novelist and former UVA Creative Writing director Christopher Tilghman, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbtjse9jS_4&t=2747s
Rita Dove and Lara Downes to perform “Tomorrow I May Be Far Away”

February 20, 2025

Hailed for her “luscious, moody and dreamy” playing by the New York Times, pianist Lara Downes is equally celebrated as a musical innovator and cultural investigator. In this collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove, she presents a kaleidoscopic evening of music and poetry inspired by myriad stories of migration and transformation.

The performance will take place at 8 pm on Saturday, February 22 at the Reston Community Center in Reston, Virginia. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Rita Dove to perform with the Cecilia Chorus at New York premiere of "The World Called"

March 28, 2025

Pairing works by Johannes Brahms and the distinguished American composer Adolphus Hailstork (setting a text by former US poet laureate Rita Dove), this powerful concert celebrates the meaning and purpose of our time on earth, and pays tribute to the memory of Heather Heyer in what would have been her 40th birthday year. Heyer’s mother Susan Bro will address the audience, and honored guest Rita Dove will recite her poem from the stage. “The world called, and I answered.”

The concert will be held at 8 pm on Saturday, April 26, 2025 at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in Carnegie Hall. For more information or to purchase tickets, follow this link.
Rita Dove on "City Lights with Lois Reitzes"

January 24, 2025

An excellent interview with Rita Dove by Lois Reitzes on her WABE (Atlanta NPR) program "City Lights"! After accessing the website below, it can be listened to by first clicking on "Episode Playlist", then scrolling to Jan. 8, 2025 and clicking on the play button. https://www.wabe.org/podcasts/city-lights/
Rita Dove featured on "Finding Your Roots"

January 22, 2025

First broadcast on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, UVA's own Rita Dove, Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing, was featured on the popular PBS program "Finding Your Roots" (in Season 11's Episode 3, Stranger Than Fiction). The one hour program, in which host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the family trees of novelist Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove - traveling across China and the American South to uncover long lost stories of the ancestors who inspired their work - is now available on the Internet without a subscription or streaming service, free of charge and no sign-in requirements, until Feb. 19, 2025: https://www.pbs.org/video/stranger-than-fiction-pleuzj/ .
In Remembrance of President Jimmy Carter

December 30, 2024

Rita Dove met President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn several times over the years -- most notably in 1995 when she and Carter hosted Nobel Prize laureates in literature at The Carter Center in Atlanta for the Cultural Olympiad (a precursor event to the 1996 Olympics); and later that same year, they joined forces again to open the Dylan Thomas Center in Swansea, Wales, during a festive summer weekend where Rita Dove's daughter Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Ph.D. (UVA M.A. in art history 2003), then 12 years old, also had the honor of meeting the Carters.

All photos © by Fred Viebahn.
Sonata Mulattica: The True Story of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata *Free Registration Required*

December 11, 2024

Fri., Jan. 17: Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States Rita Dove reads from her award-winning true tale of the origin of what we know now as the “Kreutzer” Sonata of Beethoven- and George Bridgetower, the Black violinist who inspired him. Shooting star violinist Hannah White makes her Emory debut performing the work with pianist William Ransom.

You can read reviews of the performance in The Emory Wheel and Ear Relevant.

Rita Dove discussed the performance on "City Lights with Lois Reitzes" on WABE/90.1 on January 8 between 1 and 2 pm (with a rebroadcast at 10 pm).
English/Italian edition of "Playlist for the Apocalypse" published

November 13, 2024

The bilingual (English/Italian) edition of "Playlist for the Apocalypse", edited and translated by Ana Ilievska, was recently published by Interno Poesia Editore in Latiano (Brindisi/Apulia).
Rita Dove read at the Michener Center in Austin, Texas

October 02, 2024

Sponsored by the Michener Center for Writers, Rita Dove read at the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin on Tuesday, October 1. Photos taken by Fred Viebahn.
Rita Dove appeared with Steven Pinker at the 89th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Author Symposium

September 29, 2024

On Saturday, September 28, Rita Dove and Steven Pinker were honored for their work and longstanding service on the Anisfield-Wolf Awards jury. (Rita Dove has been a member since 1991 and Prof. Pinker since 2002; both have retired from their jury duties this year.) Their conversation, “Words and Wisdom - Celebrating Rita Dove and Steven Pinker,” was moderated by Dr. Jamie Hickner, Associate Director of the Baker-Nord Center at Case Western Reserve University and an Anisfield-Wolf Teaching Fellow. The event took place at The City Club of Cleveland and was streamed for public viewing. Photos by Fred Viebahn.
Rita Dove read and hosted at Furious Flower Poetry Conference

September 20, 2024

On Thursday, September 19, Rita Dove read with Jericho Brown, Camille Dungy, and other poets at part of “Black Universe I: FFIV Featured Poets Reading.” On Friday, September 20, she hosted a "Laureate Reading and Conversation" with Angela Jackson, Amanda Johnston, Curtis Cristler, avery r. young, and Glenis Redmond. Both events took place in James Madison University’s Festival Ballroom.

Rita Dove also attended the first Furious Flower conference in 1994 (photos 1 and 2 below), the second conference in 2004 (photos 3-5), as well as the third conference in 2014 (photos 6-9), which was dedicated to her. Photos 9-20 are from this year's conference; you can view more at Rita Dove's official Facebook page. (All these Furious Flower photos over the years © by Fred Viebahn.)
Rita Dove sings with Charlottesville Band at The Paramount Theatre

August 13, 2024

On August 13, Rita Dove sang with Doug Schneider, Jessica Wiseman, and Daniel Barrale in "The Great American Songbook Meets Big Band Jazz!" This was the Charlottesville Band's final concert of the summer season.

You can view photos of videos of the performance, credit Fred Viebahn, on Rita Dove's official Facebook page.
Rita Dove poem engraved on “The Dovecote” Passive House development in Harlem

August 22, 2024

Upon the suggestion of visionary architect David Finehirsch, Rita Dove wrote a poem for “The Dovecote,” a boutique condominium complex at 11 West 126th Street in Harlem, New York, that gave the building its name and now adorns its facade. (Incidentally, from 1947 until his death in 1967, Langston Hughes lived in a nearby 19th-century brownstone, at 20 East 127th Street.)

The mosaic is by Emmett Wigglesworth.
From the Academy of American Poets archives: Rita Dove at the Nobel Laureates’ Reading

August 29, 2024

On August 29, the Academy of American Poets posted an archived photo of Rita Dove on their Facebook page. The photo was not taken in 1994 as the caption says, but on December 2, 1993 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, on the occasion of Rita Dove introducing and joining in a poetry reading by Nobel laureates Czeslaw Milosz, Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott and Octavio Paz.
Rita Dove read at Chicago's Printers Row Lit Fest

September 07, 2024

On Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, the Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago presented "A Life in Poetry", featuring Rita Dove in conversation with Elise Paschen, former executive director of the Poetry Society of America. This was Rita Dove's second participation in the widely acclaimed annual event. (In 2017, at a gala dinner preceding the festival, she received that year's Harold Washington Literary Award.) You can listen to a recording of the event by clicking the sound file below.

Photo below of Rita Dove with Elise Paschen and Printers Row programming director Amy Danzer.

Audio file

2024-09-07_rita_dove_in_conversation_with_elise_paschen.mp366.63 MB

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