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Celebrated poet Rita Dove will present recent works during a reading at Lycoming College, Monday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m., in Trogner Presentation Room in the Krapf Gateway Center. Dove was named the Himes/Sweeney Visiting Scholar in Creative Writing this year at the College. The event is free and open to the public.
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her third collection of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, her most recent book, Playlist for the Apocalypse, was called “a vital collection of poems about history and mortality” by the New York Times while naming it a Top Book of 2021. Her many other books include Collected Poems 1974 – 2004, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the recipient of the NAACP Image Award.
“When considering literature from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, few artists would necessarily be considered truly indispensable,” said Dr. Sascha Feinstein, Robert L. & Charlene Shangraw Professor of English. “Rita Dove, however, is unquestionably a member of that rarefied group. That said, her prestige seems to be matched by her humility. She is an artist of the highest order.”
“When considering literature from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, few artists would necessarily be considered truly indispensable,” said Dr. Sascha Feinstein, Robert L. & Charlene Shangraw Professor of English. “Rita Dove, however, is unquestionably a member of that rarefied group. That said, her prestige seems to be matched by her humility. She is an artist of the highest order.”
From 1993 to 1995, Dove served as U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress, and in 2022 she received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her other honors include Lifetime Achievement Medals from the Library of Virginia and the Fulbright Association, the 2014 Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the 2021 Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1996, she received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton and, in 2011, the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama—the only poet ever to receive both medals.
To date, 29 honorary doctorates have been conferred upon Dove, most recently by Yale University, Emory University, Smith College, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Iowa. She has served as president of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), as a chancellor of Phi Beta Kappa, and as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. A member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she is the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.
The Himes/Sweeney Visiting Scholar in Creative Writing series was endowed by Diane Sweeney ’60 and her husband John Sweeney in 2011. Named Scholars visit creative writing classes at Lycoming College where students have the opportunity to meet these acclaimed authors, listen to formal presentations, and engage them in discussions about their work. More information about creative writing and literature programs at Lycoming College is available at www.lycoming.edu/english.