Rita Dove - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/","20170606155443","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1496764483"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Rita Dove - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers." Today, all Americans who love poetry may feel they know Rita Dove. In addition to her writing, and her television, theater and music projects, she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia. Her collection of poems, Thomas and Beulah, based on the lives of her grandparents, earned her the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is only the second African American to win this prize. In 1993, she was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters."/> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Rita Dove - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers."</p> <p class="inputText">Today, all Americans who love poetry may feel they know Rita Dove. In addition to her writing, and her television, theater and music projects, she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.</p> <p class="inputText">Her collection of poems, <i>Thomas and Beulah, </i>based on the lives of her grandparents, earned her the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is only the second African American to win this prize.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1993, she was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dove-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers."</p> <p class="inputText">Today, all Americans who love poetry may feel they know Rita Dove. In addition to her writing, and her television, theater and music projects, she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.</p> <p class="inputText">Her collection of poems, <i>Thomas and Beulah, </i>based on the lives of her grandparents, earned her the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is only the second African American to win this prize.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1993, she was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Rita Dove - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dove-Feature-Image.jpg"/>  <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://s.w.org/"/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/web/20170606155443cs_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/dist/styles/main-2a51bc91cb.css"> </head> <body class="achiever-template-default single single-achiever postid-2273 rita-dove sidebar-primary">  <header class="main-header bg-black"> <div class="search-container clearfix"> <div class="container"> <a class="brand" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/"> <img class="logo" 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</div> </div> </header> <div class="" role="document"> <div class="content"> <main class="main"> <div class="feature-area__container"> <header class="feature-area feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dove-Feature-Image-380x152.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dove-Feature-Image.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dove-Feature-Image-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Rita Dove</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Former Poet Laureate of the United States</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2273 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-poet"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">I think that without imagination we can go nowhere. And, imagination is not something that's just restricted to the arts. Every scientist that I have met who has been a success has had to imagine. You have to imagine it’s possible before you can see something.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Pulitzer Prize for Poetry</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 28, 1952 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputTextFirst">Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio. Her father, Ray A. Dove, was a chemist, and a pioneer of integration in American industry. Both of her parents encouraged persistent study and wide reading. From an early age, Rita loved poetry and music. She played cello in her high school orchestra, and led her high school’s majorette squad. As one of the most outstanding high school graduates of her year, she was invited to the White House as a Presidential Scholar.</p> <figure id="attachment_27550" style="width: 1216px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27550 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27550 size-full lazyload" alt="August 28, 1956: Rita Dove's 4th birthday. Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of one of the first black chemists in the tire industry. Dove was encouraged to read widely by her parents, and excelled in school." width="1216" height="1680" data-sizes="(max-width: 1216px) 100vw, 1216px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956.jpg 1216w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956-275x380.jpg 275w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956-550x760.jpg 550w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">August 28, 1956: Rita Dove’s fourth birthday. Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of one of the first black chemists in the tire industry. Dove was instilled with a love of reading by her parents and excelled in school.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">At Miami University in Ohio, she began to pursue writing seriously. After graduating <i>summa cum laude </i>with a degree in English in 1973, she won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany for two years at the University of Tubingen. She then joined the famous Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, receiving her master’s degree in 1977. At Iowa, she met another Fulbright scholar, a young writer from Germany named Fred Viebahn. They were married in 1979. Their daughter, Aviva, was born in 1983.</p> <figure id="attachment_27555" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27555 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27555 size-full lazyload" alt="Rita Dove and her husband Fred Viebahn, with their newborn daughter, Aviva, in Tempe, Arizona, January 1983. " width="400" height="277" data-sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010.jpg 400w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010-380x263.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rita Dove and her husband Fred Viebahn, with their newborn daughter, Aviva, in Tempe, Arizona, January 1983.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">From 1981 to 1989, Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University. Appearances in magazines and anthologies had won national acclaim for Rita Dove before she published her first poetry collection, <i>The Yellow House on the Corner, </i>in 1980. It was followed by <i>Museum </i>(1983) and <i>Thomas and Beulah </i>(1986), a collection of interrelated poems loosely based on the life of her grandparents.</p> <figure id="attachment_27546" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27546 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27546 size-full lazyload" alt="June 1993: Poet Rita Dove. (Tim Wright/Corbis)" width="2280" height="3410" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993.jpg 2280w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993-254x380.jpg 254w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993-508x760.jpg 508w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 1993: Poet Rita Dove. Dove’s <em>Collected Poems: 1974-2004</em> showcases the wide-ranging diversity that earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the position of U.S. Poet Laureate, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Medal of Art.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText"><i>Thomas and Beulah </i>won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In 1993, Rita Dove was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters. In the fall of 1994, she read her poem <i>Lady Freedom Among Us </i>at the ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Capitol.</p> <figure id="attachment_27539" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27539 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27539 size-full lazyload" alt="1994: "The Darker Face of the Earth" is a verse play written by Rita Dove. Her first full-length play, originally conceived in 1979, it was published in 1994, while Dove was serving as United States Poet Laureate. The play is set on a slave plantation in antebellum South Carolina, and is based on the Greek legend of Oedipus, and on Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King," in particular. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996." width="2280" height="3443" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490.jpg 2280w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490-252x380.jpg 252w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490-503x760.jpg 503w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>The Darker Face of the Earth</em> is a verse play written by Rita Dove. Her first full-length play, originally conceived in 1979, it was published in 1994, while Dove was serving as United States Poet Laureate. The play is set on a slave plantation in antebellum South Carolina, and is based on the Greek legend of Oedipus, and on Sophocles’ play <em>Oedipus the King</em>, in particular. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Other publications by Rita Dove include a book of short stories, <i>Fifth Sunday, </i>the poetry collections <i>Grace Notes, Selected Poems  </i>and <i>Mother Love, </i>and the novel <i>Through the Ivory Gate.  </i>Her verse drama, <i>The Darker Face of the Earth,</i> had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1986. Another production of the play appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in 1997.</p> <p class="inputText">Dove has brought her poetry to television audiences through her appearances on CNN and NBC’s <i>Today Show</i>. Public Broadcasting has devoted an hour-long primetime special to her life and work. She has shared television stages with Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers and Big Bird. On radio, she has hosted a National Public Radio special on Billie Holliday, and has been a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s <i>Prairie Home Companion</i>.</p> <figure id="attachment_27537" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27537 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27537 size-full lazyload" alt="1996: "Mother Love" by Rita Dove. Calling upon the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, Mother Love examines the love between mother and daughter, two tumblers locked in an eternal somersault: each mother a daughter, each daughter a potential mother. In settings as various as a patio in Arizona, the bistros and boulevards of Paris, the sun-drenched pyramids of Mexico — and directly from the Greek myth itself — Rita Dove explores this relationship and the dilemma of letting go." width="2280" height="3555" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488.jpg 2280w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488-244x380.jpg 244w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488-487x760.jpg 487w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1996: <em>Mother Love</em> by Rita Dove. Calling upon the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, Mother Love examines the love between mother and daughter, two tumblers locked in an eternal somersault: each mother a daughter, each daughter a potential mother. In settings as various as a patio in Arizona, the bistros of Paris, the pyramids of Mexico — and from the Greek myth itself — Rita Dove explores this relationship and the dilemma of letting go.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">She joined former President Jimmy Carter to welcome an unprecedented gathering of Nobel Laureates in Literature to Atlanta, Georgia for the Cultural Olympiad, held in conjunction with the 1996 Olympic Games. That same year, a symphonic work for orchestra and narrator — “Umoja — Each One of Us Counts,” — was performed at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall with Rita Dove’s text performed by former Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.</p> <p>When the Library of Congress celebrated its bicentennial in 2000, Dove served the Library again as “special consultant in poetry.” A longtime resident of Virginia, she served as the state’s poet laureate from 2004 to 2006.</p> <figure id="attachment_28795" style="width: 1467px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-28795 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-28795 lazyload" alt="Ernest Gaines , Rita Dove, 2001 Banquet of the Golden Plate" width="1467" height="1464" data-sizes="(max-width: 1467px) 100vw, 1467px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041.jpg 1467w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041-760x758.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member Rita Dove presents the Golden Plate Award to Ernest J. Gaines, acclaimed author of <em>The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman</em>, during the  2001 Academy of Achievement Summit in San Antonio, Texas.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Dove’s lifelong interest in music has taken other forms. She has provided text for works by composers Tania Leon, Bruce Dolphe and Alvin Singleton. Her song cycle, <i>Seven for Luck</i>, with music by John Williams, was featured on a PBS television special with the Boston Symphony. In 2009, she published <i>Sonata Mulattica</i>, a book-length cycle of poems telling the story of the 19th century African-European violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower and his turbulent friendship with Ludwig van Beethoven.</p> <figure id="attachment_27542" style="width: 808px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27542 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27542 size-full lazyload" alt="February 12, 2012: Poet and author Rita Dove is presented with a National Medal of Arts by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. Dove was presented with the medal for her contributions to American poetry and literature. (Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)" width="808" height="1024" data-sizes="(max-width: 808px) 100vw, 808px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx.jpg 808w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx-300x380.jpg 300w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx-600x760.jpg 600w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">February 12, 2011: Poet and author Rita Dove is presented with a National Medal of Arts by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. Dove was presented with the medal for her extraordinary contributions to American poetry and literature. In 1996, Rita Dove received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony. Rita Dove is the only poet with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts to her credit. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">In 2011, Rita Dove was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. In the same year, Dove edited <i>The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry</i>. When a number of critics objected to her inclusion of some lesser-known poets at the expense of more familiar names, Rita Dove defended her choices vigorously in print and in television interviews. In 2014, Dove was the subject of a documentary film, <i>Rita Dove: An American Poet</i>. She received the 2015 Poetry and People International Prize in Guangdong, China and the 2016 Stone Award for Lifetime Achievement. To date, 25 honorary degrees have been bestowed upon Rita Dove, most recently in 2014, by Yale University.</p> <figure id="attachment_27532" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27532 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27532 size-full lazyload" alt="Rita Dove at University of Virginia." width="1200" height="835" data-sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn.jpg 1200w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn-760x529.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 22, 2016: Rita Dove speaking at the commencement ceremonies of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Rita Dove is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she and her husband reside. In her spare time, she studies classical voice and practices the <i>viola da gamba</i>, a 17th century forerunner of the modern cello. A comprehensive edition of her verse <i>Collected Poems 1974-2004</i> was published in 2016.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1994 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.poet">Poet</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 28, 1952 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“I didn’t know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.”</p> <p class="inputText">Today, all Americans who love poetry may feel they know Rita Dove. In addition to her writing, and her television, theater and music projects, she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.</p> <p class="inputText">Her collection of poems, <i>Thomas and Beulah, </i>based on the lives of her grandparents, earned her the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is only the second African American to win this prize.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1993, she was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/MZ2vstRJXgU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_01_36_24.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_01_36_24.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Pulitzer Prize for Poetry</h2> <div class="sans-2">Las Vegas, Nevada</div> <div class="sans-2">June 18, 1994</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When did you first know what you wanted to do?</b></span></p> <figure id="attachment_27553" style="width: 305px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><noscript><img class="size-medium wp-image-27553 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003-305x380.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-medium wp-image-27553 lazyload" alt="Rita Dove, head majorette of Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio, 1969. (Photo by Ray A. Dove)" width="305" height="380" data-sizes="(max-width: 305px) 100vw, 305px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003-305x380.jpg 305w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003.jpg 318w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003-305x380.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rita Dove, Presidential Scholar and head majorette of Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio, 1969. (Ray A. Dove)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: It was a gradual thing. I loved to write when I was a child. I thought it was something I would do for fun, and it really wasn’t until I was in college. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things. Because I never knew any writers, I didn’t know writers could be real live people.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The first instance that maybe it was a possible thing happened in my last year of high school. I had a high school teacher who took me to a book-signing by an author, John Ciardi, and that’s when I saw my first live author. That’s why I know it’s so important to show kids that there are real live people doing these things. I was in 12th grade. I didn’t know his work. Afterwards, of course, I began to read his work.</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/QFfqZk73S1A?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_06_56_19.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_06_56_19.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Here was a living, breathing, walking, joking person who wrote books. And for me, it was that I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn’t a person. To have someone actually in the same room with me, talking, and you realize he gets up and walks his dog the same as everybody else, was a way of saying, “It is possible. You can really walk through that door too.” That was the important thing.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1">When I was in college, I took creative writing courses and I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing courses, and I said, “Well, maybe you need to figure out if this is what you want to do.” That was the point.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_27554" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27554 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27554 size-full lazyload" alt="Rita Dove at Oberlin, Ohio, 1977. (© Fred Viebahn)" width="400" height="305" data-sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008.jpg 400w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008-380x290.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1977: Rita Dove at Oberlin, Ohio. She graduated <em>summa cum laude</em> from Miami University in Ohio with a degree in English, earned a Fulbright scholarship to study in Germany, and then earned her masters at University of Iowa.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>I’ve read there was a moment when you discovered verse. Can you tell us about that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: My parents had two half-walls of bookshelves. And they encouraged us to read whatever we wanted.</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKyTVhZLz-Y?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_04_32_00.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_04_32_00.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking really for permission. And what was wonderful about that was the fact that they let us choose what we wanted to read for extra reading material. So it was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely, not because someone assigned it to me, but because I chose to read it. There was an anthology up there. One anthology of poetry. It was a purple with gold cover, I’ll never forget. It’s really thick. It went from Roman times all the way up to the 1950s at that point. And I began to browse. I mean, I really was like browsing. I read in it a little bit. If I liked a poem by one person, I would read the rest of them by that person. I was about 11 or 12 at this point. I had no idea who these people were. I had heard of Shakespeare, sure, but I didn’t know the relative value of Shakespeare, of Emily Dickinson, or all these people that I was reading. So I really began to read what I wanted to read, and without anyone telling me that this was too hard. You know, “You’re only 11, how can you possibly understand Sara Teasdale, or something like that?” And that’s how my love affair, I think, with poetry began. This was entirely my world and I felt as if they were whispering directly to me.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_27538" style="width: 2144px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27538 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27538 size-full lazyload" alt="1991: "Grace Notes" by Rita Dove. With this, her fourth book of poems, Rita Dove expands her role as a leading voice in contemporary American letters. The title of the collection serves as an umbrella for the intimate concerns expressed in the 48 poems; in music, grace notes are those added to the basic melody, the embellishments that — if played or sung at the right moment with just the right touch — can break your heart." width="2144" height="3179" data-sizes="(max-width: 2144px) 100vw, 2144px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489.jpg 2144w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489-256x380.jpg 256w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489-513x760.jpg 513w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1989: With her fourth book of poems, <em>Grace Notes</em>, Rita Dove emerges as a voice in contemporary American letters. The title serves as an umbrella for the intimate concerns expressed in the 48 poems; in music, grace notes are those added to the basic melody, the embellishments that — if played or sung at the right moment with just the right touch — can break your heart. She was the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>And there was a moment when you read a slightly rude poem by Sylvia Plath?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: Oh, yes. That happened in college and it seems kind of late.</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dv6Ik8sEY8U?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_10_00_19.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_10_00_19.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It was a poem by Sylvia Plath called “Daddy.” Which is an amazing poem, a hate poem really, to her father, which ends up saying, “Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” Now, it’s an incredible poem because it’s sort of like a nursery rhyme. It rhymes in that way and yet it has this incredible vehemence. And it was the first time that I realized that you didn’t have to be polite. You know, you’re raised by parents who are always concerned to raise you so you aren’t a little animal, you know, in society. And I think that though they never really said directly there are things that you should or shouldn’t say in writing or in learning — they always encouraged us to go as far as we could — still, I think there was this feeling that you had to be nice. I felt that. And that was an enormous release to be able to say, “Well, it is not only the happy moments are things that should be talked about, but every moment.” All the moments that make up a human being have to be written about, talked about, painted, danced, in order to really talk about life. So it was liberating in that sense.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_27531" style="width: 1484px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27531 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27531 size-full lazyload" alt="2016: Rita Dove's "Collected Poems: 1974-2004" showcases the wide-ranging diversity that earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the position of U.S. Poet Laureate, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Medal of Art. Gathering 30 years and seven books, this volume compiles Dove's fresh reflections on adolescence in "The Yellow House on the Corner" and her irreverent musings in "Museum." She sets the moving love story of Thomas and Beulah against the backdrop of war, industrialization, and the civil rights struggles. The multifaceted gems of "Grace Notes," the exquisite reinvention of Greek myth in the sonnets of "Mother Love," the troubling rapids of recent history in "On the Bus with Rosa Parks," and the homage to America's kaleidoscopic cultural heritage in "American Smooth" all celebrate Dove's mastery of narrative context with lyrical finesse. With the precise, singing lines for which the Washington Post praised her, Dove has created fresh configurations of the traditional and the experimental. (Poetry magazine)" width="1484" height="2255" data-sizes="(max-width: 1484px) 100vw, 1484px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949.jpg 1484w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949-250x380.jpg 250w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949-500x760.jpg 500w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2016: Rita Dove’s <em>Collected Poems: 1974-2004</em> showcases the wide-ranging diversity that earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the position of U.S. Poet Laureate, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Medal of Art. Gathering 30 years and seven books, this volume compiles Dove’s fresh reflections on adolescence in <em>The Yellow House on the Corner</em> and her irreverent musings in <em>Museum</em>. She sets the moving love story of Thomas and Beulah against the backdrop of war, industrialization, and the civil rights struggles. The multifaceted gems of <em>Grace Notes</em>, the exquisite reinvention of Greek myth in the sonnets of <em>Mother Love</em>, the troubling rapids of recent history in <em>On the Bus with Rosa Parks</em>, and the homage to America’s kaleidoscopic cultural heritage in <em>American Smooth</em> all celebrate Dove’s mastery of narrative context with lyrical finesse. With the precise, singing lines for which <em>The </em><em>Washington Post</em> praised her, Dove has created fresh, imaginative configurations of the traditional and the experimental.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>How would you explain to someone who has never read poetry, what it is that so enthralls you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: I would try to show them what it is about language and about music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/6-4hrx-oskM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_09_07_24.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_09_07_24.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Very often, people who are not familiar with poetry, or don’t know much about it, are operating out of fear. At some point in their life, they’ve been given a poem to interpret and told, “That was the wrong answer.” You know. I think we’ve all gone through that. I went through that. And it’s unfortunate that sometimes in schools — this need to have things quantified and graded — we end up doing this kind of multiple choice approach to something that should be as ambiguous and ever-changing as life itself. So I try to ask them, “Have you ever heard a good joke?” If you’ve ever heard someone tell a joke just right, with the right pacing, then you’re already on the way to the poetry. Because it’s really about using words in very precise ways and also using gesture as it goes through language, not the gesture of your hands, but how language creates a mood. And you know, who can resist a good joke? When they get that far, then they can realize that poetry can also be fun.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_27529" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27529 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27529 size-full lazyload" alt="2008: Rita Dove, husband Fred Viebahn, and their daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, in Virginia. After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Dove received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, and later earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she met her husband, the German writer Fred Viebahn." width="740" height="509" data-sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4.jpg 740w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4-380x261.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2008: Rita Dove, husband Fred Viebahn, and their daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, in Virginia. After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Dove received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, and later earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she met her husband, Fred Viebahn.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You’ve had some great excitement in recent years in your career. What are some of the moments that really stand out for you?</b></span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EF4_HO2UXCM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_14_04_02.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_14_04_02.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: The first moment that really stood out in terms of public excitement and recognition was when I got the Pulitzer. I was 34; I had no idea I was being considered. It was really a moment of moving from a very private sense of life to a public sense, and I didn’t even know the book was being considered. I was very pleased that it was that book, though, that in fact got the Pulitzer — <i>Thomas and Beulah </i>— which was a book about my grandparents; a collection of poems that dealt with their lives: first his side and then her side of the story. And it wasn’t a spectacular book. They didn’t endure a train wreck or anything like that. They were living their lives in this quietly heroic way like many people in this country. And that that book was chosen for the Pulitzer was wonderful for me, I think, personally. Also for my parents it was wonderful.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I remember that feeling.</span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/DiYlEwY9KZQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_05_01_15.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_05_01_15.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I got the Pulitzer on my husband’s 40th birthday, and I was planning a surprise party, and I didn’t have classes that day. I told everyone at the university, “Don’t call me, I’m going to surprise him.” And when the phone rang and it was the chair of my department saying, “I know you’re there” — speaking through the answering machine — I was, “Shhhh!” — thinking, “He’s not supposed to disturb me! This is my day!” So when he said, “Rita, this is really important,” and I realized his voice was several octaves higher than usual, that was the moment when I really felt like, sort of like the camera lights came on into my life. It was quite distinct.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The second big surprise was when I was appointed Poet Laureate. Again, it came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about! I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much again in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.</span></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_27547" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27547 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27547 size-full lazyload" alt="2013: Still from the documentary “Rita Dove: An American Poet,” shot in Staunton, Virginia." width="2280" height="1283" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window.jpg 2280w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window-380x214.jpg 380w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window-760x428.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2013: A still photograph from the documentary <em>Rita Dove: An American Poet</em>, filmed in Staunton, Virginia.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><b>What does it mean to be Poet Laureate?</b></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: It offers someone as a spokesperson for literature and poetry in this country. It means that one becomes an automatic role model. It means that people write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable. Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, to have people come to me and say, “We have to save the children first. You need to talk with children. You need to talk to teachers and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.” And I say, “Yes. As a spokesperson for poetry and literature, this is something that I can do.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">It means having a platform from which to talk about something that’s very near to me, about a very intimate art. It’s the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being Poet Laureate.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_27541" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27541 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27541 size-full lazyload" alt="January 2014: At the premier of "Rita Dove: An American Poet" at the Paramount Theatre." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet.jpg 2280w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">January 2014: At the premier of <em>Rita Dove: An American Poet</em> at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Virginia.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>I imagine that holds quite a bit of responsibility also.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rita Dove: Yes, it does hold that responsibility, and sometimes the shoulders begin to droop a bit. But…</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170606155443if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/RMP9kg9ASYQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_12_43_12.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-1994-MasterEdit.00_12_43_12.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Every time I receive a letter from someone who simply wants to write, not because they want something, because they simply want to say, “I just want to tell you what poetry means to me,” I realize what hunger there is out there for people to be able to read and to write poetry — to feel a connection with other people on a very intimate, interior level. That buoys me up some. There are obligations, too. Distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress, and advise the Librarian on literary matters. The rest is pretty much left up to me: how I want to promote poetry, how I want to bring it into the households.</span></p> </div> </div>         <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputText"><b>Was there a teacher who particularly inspired you?</b></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: Well, I had a couple. I had a couple teachers who did inspire me. One was this eleventh grade English teacher — eleventh and twelfth grade. She and I, we still have tea together sometimes today. I was frightened before I went into her class. I heard she was a battle axe. I heard that she would flunk you if you split an infinitive. And it’s true. She would, but she also would tell you what a split infinitive was, and then once you knew, you never did it again. She just opened up to me, how language — how the written word — can also sing. And she spent, I remember once, 45 minutes on one page: the first page of a novel. By the end of the class, no one had taken down a single note, because we were absolutely enthralled. It was incredible.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>What was the name of this teacher?</b></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: Her name was Miss Oechsner. Margaret Oechsner. And, as I said, every time I go back home to Akron, Ohio, we get together and have lunch or tea or something like that. And there were others.</p> <p>I had a ninth grade English teacher, Mr. Hicks, who put us in groups and gave us impossible poems to interpret. When I say “impossible,” I mean poems which had Greek in them — a little bit of Greek and — languages we couldn’t even — we couldn’t even read the alphabet. “Just tell me what it means. Tell me what you think it means.” And after a couple of class periods when we decided this is so impossible we might as well just make a wild guess, it turned out our guesses weren’t so wild after all. So he taught us to trust what your gut reaction was to something. Even if you didn’t understand every word, to work out the context.</p> <p class="inputText">And in college, I had a couple of fantastic teachers. I had a teacher who taught fiction, who strolled into class the first day and said, “We’re going to tell stories. Who’s gonna start?” And we’re all gasping. We thought we were going to have a chance to write it down on paper. No, he made us talk. He made us begin a story. We didn’t have to end it, but just how are you going to catch someone’s attention? What are you going to say right away? It was a phenomenal lesson.</p> <p class="inputText">But I think the most important influences were really my parents. My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. The one thing that was important was the fact that you never said, “I don’t get it, I’m going to give up.” You start small and you work at it a little bit at a time. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends, and isn’t that great.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>Were there many kids in the family?</b></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: I have two younger sisters and an older brother. They’re all chemists or mathematicians. All of us love to read. The whole family is full of scientists.</p> <p><strong>What do you think are the most important personal characteristics for success in any field?</strong></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: I think it is imagination. I think that without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not something that’s just restricted to the arts. Every scientist that I have met who has been a success has had to imagine. You have to imagine it possible before you can see something, sometimes. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can’t imagine something that has never existed before, it’s impossible. And, with imagination, there are a lot of other characteristics I think you need too. You need determination, and you need to have some sense, some faith in the human ability to persevere and to triumph. Whether you have faith in yourself as that human being is a different point, but at least the faith that human beings can do it. But imagination, in a certain way, contains all of those things, too, because you have to imagine that it is possible for human beings to do something before you can do it.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>Looking back on your ups and downs, what advice would you give to someone who wants to become a writer?</b></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: The first thing I tell them is to read. If they don’t read, if they don’t love reading, if they don’t find themselves compulsively reading — print as they walk by a shopping mall, anything — then I don’t think they’re really a writer. Then it’s the ego talking. Because inherent in the idea of being a writer is to have the whole continuum, have the whole circle be completed. That feeling as a writer that you are writing, someone else is going to pick this up and read it and it’s not completed until that person reads it. If you haven’t taken part in that continuum, how can you even know how it’s going to work?</p> <p>Hemingway once said that more writers fail from lack of character than lack of talent. You know? It is not a question of sitting down under a tree and having inspiration come down. If you wait for inspiration, inspiration’s going to go away and look for more fertile ground to work with. There’s a lot of work involved in it too. There’s a lot of feeling that you’re almost there, but you don’t even know how to get to that point in the poem, and then you just simply keep working. You keep writing, you keep re-writing. And to know that everyone goes through that — and that’s part of the process and it’s actually a fun part of the process — is very important too.</p> <p class="inputText">I would also tell them — and this sounds corny — but they can only write what they feel. That doesn’t mean they have to have experience it, but to write something because someone else thinks it’s right, to write for PC reasons, to write because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you and, come what may, even if it doesn’t seem to be at all socially acceptable, if that’s how you feel, that’s really what you have to write.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>You have to be true to yourself.</b></p> <p class="inputText">Rita Dove: Yes, because being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit. And as much as we’d like to give — and we want to be perfect, well-rounded individuals — all of us have our quirks. We all know we’ve had our foibles. And we’ve got these embarrassing moments in our lives, and things that we’re ultimately ashamed of. What writing — what I think all the arts do — is to reveal. Let us see again and experience again, all the ambiguities that make up — and the contradictions that make up — a human being: the good and the bad and how they can exist in one person and make a complex individual. And to do that, that means being very honest. Being honest all the time.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>I wonder if you have any reactions to that phrase, “American Dream.” What does that mean to you?</b></p> <p>Rita Dove: “The American Dream” is a phrase that we’ll have to wrestle with all of our lives, and on and on to our children’s lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think that we’re redefining it now.</p> <p class="inputText">For a long time, the American dream meant, you know, a chicken in every pot and a Frigidaire, right? You know, “You need a Frigidaire in the kitchen.” And now we’re beginning to realize that the American dream really is not about uniformity, but it’s about — I don’t want to say diversity. What I want to say is, it’s more like a mosaic. It’s not a melting pot, it’s a mosaic, and we all contribute our tiles to making up that big picture. And that’s glorious. That’s nothing to be afraid of.</p> <p class="inputText">To me, that’s what the American dream is, the entire mosaic. When you back up, you see the whole thing, but when you get in there, there’s a whole bunch of little dreams in there. That’s what I think.</p> <p class="inputText"><b>Thank you so much for your time.</b></p> <p class="inputText">Thank you.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Rita Dove Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>35 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4728682170543" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/71SDuWFoVYL.jpg" data-image-caption="1996: "Mother Love" by Rita Dove. Calling upon the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, Mother Love examines the love between mother and daughter, two tumblers locked in an eternal somersault: each mother a daughter, each daughter a potential mother. In settings as various as a patio in Arizona, the bistros and boulevards of Paris, the sun-drenched pyramids of Mexico — and directly from the Greek myth itself — Rita Dove explores this relationship and the dilemma of letting go." data-image-copyright="71sduwfovyl" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/71SDuWFoVYL-258x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/71SDuWFoVYL-516x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/7642_photo_1_high_res.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove has received numerous honors and awards for her work, including a Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities and a Common Wealth Award. In 1996 she received a National Humanities Medal. She is currently Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. (Tom Cogill)" data-image-copyright="Rita Dove" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/7642_photo_1_high_res-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/7642_photo_1_high_res-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.99736842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041.jpg" data-image-caption="Ernest Gaines , Rita Dove, 2001 Banquet of the Golden Plate" data-image-copyright="wp-gaines-dove-img041" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-gaines-dove-img041-760x758.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20160414_ritadovestoneawardpc_ho-0227.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Rita Dove at Oregon State University Alumni Center for a reading and to accept the Stone Award." data-image-copyright="20160414_ritadovestoneawardpc_ho-0227" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20160414_ritadovestoneawardpc_ho-0227-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20160414_ritadovestoneawardpc_ho-0227-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/343943499.jpg" data-image-caption="1998: President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton are seen at the White House with Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove, and Robert Haas. (Susan Walsh/AP)" data-image-copyright="343943499" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/343943499-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/343943499-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/1392827209_IMG_2898.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Rita Dove speaking at the opening ceremony of the Poetry Festival of Granada to support a campaign to end violence against women." data-image-copyright="1392827209_img_2898" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/1392827209_IMG_2898-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/1392827209_IMG_2898-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68783783783784" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4.jpg" data-image-caption="2008: Rita Dove, husband Fred Viebahn, and their daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, in Virginia. After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Dove received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, and later earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she met her husband, the German writer Fred Viebahn." data-image-copyright="a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4-380x261.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/a387f1c63e0802927ebd4e1baf310ef4.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Askia_toure_and_others.jpg" data-image-caption="2004: Askia Toure, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Delores Kendrick, Eugene Redmond, Rita Dove, and Dr. Joanne Gabbin during the 2004 Poetry Conference at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia." data-image-copyright="askia_toure_and_others" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Askia_toure_and_others-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Askia_toure_and_others-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.52" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Rita Dove's "Collected Poems: 1974-2004" showcases the wide-ranging diversity that earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the position of U.S. Poet Laureate, a National Humanities Medal, and a National Medal of Art. Gathering 30 years and seven books, this volume compiles Dove's fresh reflections on adolescence in "The Yellow House on the Corner" and her irreverent musings in "Museum." She sets the moving love story of Thomas and Beulah against the backdrop of war, industrialization, and the civil rights struggles. The multifaceted gems of "Grace Notes," the exquisite reinvention of Greek myth in the sonnets of "Mother Love," the troubling rapids of recent history in "On the Bus with Rosa Parks," and the homage to America's kaleidoscopic cultural heritage in "American Smooth" all celebrate Dove's mastery of narrative context with lyrical finesse. With the precise, singing lines for which the Washington Post praised her, Dove has created fresh configurations of the traditional and the experimental. (Poetry magazine)" data-image-copyright="collectedpoemsdove_9780393285949" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949-250x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CollectedPoemsDove_9780393285949-500x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69605263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove at University of Virginia." data-image-copyright="Rita Dove at University of Virginia." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CuGRN-yVYAAh8Kn-760x529.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.501976284585" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita341.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. (Fred Viebahn)" data-image-copyright="dove-rita341" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita341-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita341-506x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67894736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-Corbis-TW003351.jpg" data-image-caption="1993: Poet Rita Dove. (Tim Wright/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="1993: Poet Rita Dove. (Tim Wright/Corbis)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-Corbis-TW003351-380x258.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Dove-Rita-Corbis-TW003351-760x516.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.56315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/guinn_mural_ss_08.jpg" data-image-caption="August 2016: "The world called, and I answered.” That line, written by University of Virginia English professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, is the centerpiece of a new mural gracing an exterior wall of the Graduate Charlottesville Hotel on University Avenue. It comes from Dove’s poem, “Testimonial,” originally published in her book, “On the Bus with Rosa Parks.”" data-image-copyright="guinn_mural_ss_08" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/guinn_mural_ss_08-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/guinn_mural_ss_08-760x428.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.415270018622" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img482.jpg" data-image-caption="1994: Poet Laureate Rita Dove, on the balcony of her office at the Library of Congress, across from the U.S. Capitol. (Fred Viebahn)" data-image-copyright="img482" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img482-268x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img482-537x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5605749486653" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488.jpg" data-image-caption="1996: "Mother Love" by Rita Dove. Calling upon the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, Mother Love examines the love between mother and daughter, two tumblers locked in an eternal somersault: each mother a daughter, each daughter a potential mother. In settings as various as a patio in Arizona, the bistros and boulevards of Paris, the sun-drenched pyramids of Mexico — and directly from the Greek myth itself — Rita Dove explores this relationship and the dilemma of letting go." data-image-copyright="img488" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488-244x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img488-487x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4814814814815" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489.jpg" data-image-caption="1991: "Grace Notes" by Rita Dove. With this, her fourth book of poems, Rita Dove expands her role as a leading voice in contemporary American letters. The title of the collection serves as an umbrella for the intimate concerns expressed in the 48 poems; in music, grace notes are those added to the basic melody, the embellishments that — if played or sung at the right moment with just the right touch — can break your heart." data-image-copyright="img489" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489-256x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img489-513x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5109343936382" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490.jpg" data-image-caption="1994: "The Darker Face of the Earth" is a verse play written by Rita Dove. Her first full-length play, originally conceived in 1979, it was published in 1994, while Dove was serving as United States Poet Laureate. The play is set on a slave plantation in antebellum South Carolina, and is based on the Greek legend of Oedipus, and on Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King," in particular. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996." data-image-copyright="img490" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/img490-503x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.975" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Photo1.jpg" data-image-caption="2014: Rita Dove" data-image-copyright="2014: Rita Dove" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Photo1-380x371.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Photo1-760x741.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet.jpg" data-image-caption="January 2014: At the premier of "Rita Dove: An American Poet" at the Paramount Theatre." data-image-copyright="premier_of_rita_dove_an_american_poet" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Premier_of_Rita_Dove_An_American_Poet-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2666666666667" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx.jpg" data-image-caption="February 12, 2012: Poet and author Rita Dove is presented with a National Medal of Arts by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. Dove was presented with the medal for her contributions to American poetry and literature. (Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)" data-image-copyright="presidentmrsobamapresentnatlmedalartsn16_hwjoiqyx" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx-300x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PresidentMrsObamaPresentNatlMedalArtsn16_hwjOIQYx-600x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-dove-poet-laureate-of-the-united-states-library-of-congress.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove, Poet Laureate of the United States" data-image-copyright="rita-dove-poet-laureate-of-the-united-states-library-of-congress" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-dove-poet-laureate-of-the-united-states-library-of-congress-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-dove-poet-laureate-of-the-united-states-library-of-congress-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3194444444444" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_0.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor, Department of English, University of Virginia" data-image-copyright="rita_dove_0" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_0-288x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_0-576x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.496062992126" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993.jpg" data-image-caption="June 1993: Poet Rita Dove. (Tim Wright/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="Poet Rita Dove" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993-254x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita_dove_1993-508x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.56315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window.jpg" data-image-caption="2013: Still from the documentary “Rita Dove: An American Poet,” shot in Staunton, Virginia." data-image-copyright="rita_dove_by_window" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_by_Window-760x428.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_on_Toni_Morrison.jpg" data-image-caption="March 12, 2015: Rita Dove's "Homage to Toni Morrison" on the occasion of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Book Critics Circle Awards Ceremony at The New School in New York City." data-image-copyright="rita_dove_on_toni_morrison" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_on_Toni_Morrison-380x263.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Rita_Dove_on_Toni_Morrison-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-emory.jpg" data-image-caption="February 2016: Rita Dove captivated the Emory community with a free poetry reading at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts." data-image-copyright="0022801-16AB" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-emory-380x265.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rita-emory-760x531.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3818181818182" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956.jpg" data-image-caption="August 28, 1956: Rita Dove's 4th birthday. Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of one of the first black chemists in the tire industry. Dove was encouraged to read widely by her parents, and excelled in school." data-image-copyright="ritas-4th-birthday-aug-28-1956" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956-275x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ritas-4th-birthday-Aug-28-1956-550x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63552631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/story1Pic2.jpg" data-image-caption="2013: NIH Clinical Center director Dr. John Gallin and Dr. Deborah Merke, chief of the CC pediatric consult service, talk with Rita Dove and her husband, author Fred Viebahn, about the Clinical Research Center. Dove gave a lecture at NIH's Masur Auditorium. Introducing Dove as his “friend for more than a decade,” NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said she has “poetry in her heart and mind, but science in her DNA.” Dove’s father Ray broke the color barrier in the tire industry as the first black research chemist at Goodyear." data-image-copyright="story1pic2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/story1Pic2-380x241.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/story1Pic2-760x483.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6575" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-002.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove and her brother, Tom, all decked out for church in Akron, Ohio, ca. 1956. (Photo by Ray A. Dove)" data-image-copyright="dov0-002" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-002-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-002.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2452830188679" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove, head majorette of Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio, 1969. (Photo by Ray A. Dove)" data-image-copyright="dov0-003" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003-305x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-003.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.7625" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove at Oberlin, Ohio, 1977. (© Fred Viebahn)" data-image-copyright="dov0-008" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008-380x290.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-008.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6925" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove and her husband Fred Viebahn, with their newborn daughter, Aviva, in Tempe, Arizona, January 1983. " data-image-copyright="dov0-010" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010-380x263.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-010.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.7125" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-014.jpg" data-image-caption="Rita Dove at home, playing her viola da gamba. (© Fred Viebahn)" data-image-copyright="dov0-014" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-014-380x271.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dov0-014.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Cameron-James-and-other-Academy-members-Lucas-and-Woodward-participating-in-a-Summit-panel-discussion.jpg" data-image-caption="George Lucas moderating a Summit panel discussion with Bob Woodward, James Cameron, Rita Dove and Ben Bradlee." data-image-copyright="wp-cameron-james-and-other-academy-members-lucas-and-woodward-participating-in-a-summit-panel-discussion" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Cameron-James-and-other-Academy-members-Lucas-and-Woodward-participating-in-a-Summit-panel-discussion-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Cameron-James-and-other-Academy-members-Lucas-and-Woodward-participating-in-a-Summit-panel-discussion-760x503.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.98421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp2-Dove-Rita-with-Ernest-Gaines-2001-Summit-without-dust.jpg" data-image-caption="2001 Achievement Summit panel discussion with Arthur Golden, Rita Dove, Stephen Ambrose, Ernest Gaines, N. Scott Momaday, in San Antonio, Texas. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp2-dove-rita-with-ernest-gaines-2001-summit-without-dust" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp2-Dove-Rita-with-Ernest-Gaines-2001-Summit-without-dust-380x374.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/wp2-Dove-Rita-with-Ernest-Gaines-2001-Summit-without-dust-760x748.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on January 5, 2017</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts shy-introverted spiritual-religious " data-year-inducted="1990" data-achiever-name="Angelou"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/angelou_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/01/angelou_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Maya Angelou</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Poet and Historian</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1990</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts racism-discrimination small-town-rural-upbringing curious write " data-year-inducted="2001" data-achiever-name="Gaines"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gaines-007a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gaines-007a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ernest J. Gaines</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Master of the Novel</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2001</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts illness-or-disability shy-introverted write teach-others " data-year-inducted="2012" data-achiever-name="Gluck"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/glu0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/glu0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Louise Glück</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Former Poet Laureate of the United States</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2012</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts analytical curious write explore-nature explore-the-world help-mankind " data-year-inducted="2008" data-achiever-name="Merwin"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/merwin-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/merwin-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">W. S. Merwin</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Former Poet Laureate of the United States</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2008</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts small-town-rural-upbringing write teach-others ambitious " data-year-inducted="1997" data-achiever-name="Oates"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/oates-013a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/oates-013a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Joyce Carol Oates</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">National Book Award</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1997</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever writer the-arts ambitious extroverted write build-or-create-things " data-year-inducted="2007" data-achiever-name="Parks, Suzan-Lori"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/parks-suzan-lori-760_SQUARE-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/parks-suzan-lori-760_SQUARE-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Suzan-Lori Parks</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Pulitzer Prize for Drama</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2007</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20170606155443im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Julie Andrews</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Angelou</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-d-ballard-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert D. 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Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170606155443/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. 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