RITA DOVE

Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate of the United States, is the recipient of many honors, among them the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and the Heinz Award. Among her recent publications are the poetry collections American Smooth (Norton, 2004), On the Bus with Rosa Parks (Norton, 1999), and the drama The Darker Face of the Earth. She is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.