Poetry Path: Rita Dove

Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. Dove has written ten collections of poetry, including Thomas and Beulah (Carnegie-Mellon Press, 1986), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Dove served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993-1995, becoming the youngest and first African-American poet to do so. Dove works as a Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Rita Dove, excerpt from “Transit.” Copyright © 2016 by Rita Dove. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 5, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets. Used with the permission of the author.

The Poetry Path is made possible through a partnership with Battery Park City Authority, partners in design and fabrication of the Poetry Path, with additional support from our Outreach Partner, Goldman Sachs. Special thanks to the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation for funding the Poetry Path planning process, and to the Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation for supporting Poetry Path educational initiatives for youth and children.

Children’s poet, author, actor, and educator Charles Waters takes us on a tour of the Poetry Path in Battery Park City.