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 61: Rosa Alcalá (Translation Series, Ep. 1)
Episode 60: Robin Coste Lewis
Episode 59: Alison S. M. Kobayashi
Episode 58: Cate Marvin
Episode 57: Dorothea Lasky
Episode 56: Jennifer Kronovet
Episode 55: Anne Waldman
Episode 54: Gerald Stern
Episode 53: Tommy Pico
Episode 52: Richard Siken
Episode 51: TC Tolbert
Episode 50: Inside Commonplace
Episode 49: CAConrad
Episode 48: Poets at MacDowell: Destiny Birdsong, Juleen Johnson, Jenny George, Eloisa Amezcua, & Amanda Galvan Huynh
Episode 47: Erin Riley
Episode 46: Allison Parrish
Episode 45: Tyehimba Jess
Episode 44: Matthew Zapruder
Episode 43: Airea D. Matthews
Episode 42: Gabrielle Calvocoressi
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