Rita Dove

 

Rita Frances Dove is a poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as “United States Poet Laureate”. She was the first, and to date only, African-American to be appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 out of the previous “consultant in poetry” position (1937-86). Dove also received an appointment as “special consultant in poetry” for the Library of Congress’s bicentennial year from 1999-2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, and she served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-2006. Some of Dove’s works are Fifth Sunday, The Poet’s Worlf, and Through the Ivory Gate.