Episode 27: Rita Dove

Rachel Zucker talks with Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of more than 15 books and University of Virginia professor about political poetry, creative writing programs, the usefulness of prosody, form as ‘a talisman against disintegration,’ the public intimacy of social media, her poem ‘Parsley,’ audience, code switching, why some poems are hard to read, blackness and other people’s expectations of her as a black woman, getting over the Iowa voice, narrative poetry, her book Thomas and Beulah, the myth of Persephone, Trump, motherhood, marriage, slavery, freedom, why she moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, being a musician and a ballroom dancer, the solace of rhyme, and embracing change.

Rachel Zucker talks with Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of more than 15 books and University of Virginia professor about political poetry, creative writing programs, the usefulness of prosody, form as ‘a talisman against disintegration,’ the public intimacy of social media, her poem ‘Parsley,’ audience, code switching, why some poems are hard to read, blackness and other people’s expectations of her as a black woman, getting over the Iowa voice, narrative poetry, her book Thomas and Beulah, the myth of Persephone, Trump, motherhood, marriage, slavery, freedom, why she moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, being a musician and a ballroom dancer, the solace of rhyme, and embracing change.

EXTRA MATERIALS FOR EPISODE 27Books by Rita Dove

Collected Poems: 1974-2004 (W.W. Norton, 2016)

Sonata Mulattica (W. W. Norton, 2010)

American Smooth (W. W. Norton, 2006)

The Darker Face of the Earth (Story Line Press, 2000)

On the Bus with Rosa Parks (W. W. Norton, 2000)

Mother Love (W. W. Norton, 1996)

Thomas and Beulah (Carnegie Mellon, 1996)

Through the Ivory Gate (Vintage, 1993)

Selected Poems (Vintage, 1993)

Museum (Carnegie Mellon, 1992)

Grace Notes (W. W. Norton, 1991)

Fifth Sunday (Callaloo, 1990)

The Yellow House on the Corner (Carnegie Mellon, 1989)

Books and Other Authors Mentioned in the Episode

Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Puffin Books, 2013)

Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days (University of Iowa Press, 2010)

A Poet’s Glossary by Edward HIrsch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (W. W. Norton, 2001)

Gunter Grass

Laurel Snyder

The University of Virginia MFA program — Charles Wright, Gregory Orr, Lisa Russ Spaar, Paul Guest, Debra Nystrom

Rachel Zucker’s Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan, 2003)

The Reaper Essays by Mark Jarman (Story Line Press, 1996)

Renga for Obama (organized by Major Jackson)

Tanks and the Bangas’ website and their Tiny Desk performance

Other Relevant Links

Rita Dove’s poem “Parsley”

Iowa Writers’ Workshop

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Ballroom dancing