Profile: Rita Dove
It's rare for a living poet to become an American household name. Rita Dove is one of those exceptions. When the future U.S. Poet Laureate joined the University of Virginia in 1989, her resume was already laden — she'd won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, Thomas and Beulah, and collected fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
What attracted Dove to the University of Virginia, she says, was its "intellectual fervor and excitement." "Everyone that I met in the English Department and the other departments were such exceptional people — fun, intelligent, curious people," Dove recalls. "I thought: I want to sit down and talk to these people!"
Since joining the faculty, Dove has won numerous literary awards and recognitions and holds 21 honorary degrees. Her latest book, American Smooth, a collection of poems inspired by ballroom dancing, came out in 2004. She's currently working on another poetry collection, as well as a book of short lyrics and a series of one-act plays.
Dove says U.Va. has been central to her creative achievement. "It's been phenomenal because the University has a way of supporting your research, your artistic endeavors, without being intrusive," she explains. "You're on a bed of support. And that's what every intellectual needs to be daring."
"Just walking through the halls, there's a hum of intellectual activity. I love that."
