In her first book of new poems in twelve years, acclaimed poet Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America’s, and the world’s, experiments in democracy. Deftly connecting history’s grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives—a trademark of the writer the Boston Globe has called “perhaps the best public poet we have”—and alternating poignant meditations on mortality with acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to apocalyptic failures of the human soul.

This event originally took place August 3, 2021; it can be watched on the Rain Taxi Review of Books YouTube page.