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 DoveCollected 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 EpisodeJefferson’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 LinksRita Dove’s poem “Parsley”
Iowa Writers’ Workshop
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Ballroom dancing
Episode 101: Prageeta Sharma
Episode 100: Doreen Wang
Episode 99: Douglas Kearney
Episode 98: Torrey Peters
Episode 97: Camille Dungy
Episode 96: Judy Grahn
Episode 95: Jason Schneiderman
Episode 94: Jennifer Block
Episode 93: Arielle Greenberg
Episode 92: Behind the Scenes
Episode 91: Nate Marshall
Episode 90: Makenna Goodman
Episode 89: The Ladder Out of the Hole
Episode 88: Global Roll Call, Part 3
Episode 87: Global Roll Call, Part 2
Episode 86: Global Roll Call, Part 1
Episode 85: The Craft of the Literary Interview
Episode 84: M. NourbeSe Philip
Episode 83: Darcey Steinke
Episode 82: Maggie Nelson
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