Rita Dove
Rita Dove
Rita Frances Doveis an American poet and author. From 1993 to 1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African-American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous "consultant in poetry" position. Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American...
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth28 August 1952
CityAkron, OH
I never think of my audience when I write a poem. I try to write out of whatever is haunting me; in order for a poem to feel authentic, I have to feel I'm treading on very dangerous ground, which can mean that the resulting revelations may prove hurtful to other people. The time for thinking about that kind of guilt or any collective sense of responsibility, however, occurs much later in the creative process, after the poem is finished.
I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.
When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings.
Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.
The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.
To write for PC reasons, 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.
I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.
I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.
Don't be so fast, you're all you've got.
Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.
I was not interested in doing the plot of OEDIPUS in blackface. I did wonder, what would these people have been like if they hadn't been in that situation? . . . One could look at Oedipus, or at my character Augustus, as a cynical schemer who did everything because he was hungry for power. But that's just too easy. I'm more interested in how humans can embody conflicting goals and emotions.
If they don't read, if they don't love reading; if they don't find themselves compulsively reading, I don't think they're really a writer
I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.