The Georgia Review, UGA’s prize-winning quarterly journal of arts and letters, marks its long association with Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove by hosting the renowned writer for three public appearances in Athens on Oct. 8 and 9.
Scheduled events on Oct. 8 are a 3:30 p.m. Q&A and book signing at the Tate Student Center Theater and a 7 p.m. reading, “How Does a Shadow Shine?” at the Morton Theatre, 195 West Washington St. On Oct. 9 at 7 p.m., the Athens-Clarke County Public Library will host “Cafe au Libris: An Evening with Rita Dove,” a conversation and book signing. The library is located at 2025 Baxter St. Dove also will meet with students and faculty at Clarke Central High School.
“Rita Dove has not settled for being ‘merely’ the brilliant and multi-talented writer she has shown herself to be for three decades,” said Stephen Corey, editor of the Review. “She also has dedicated herself to bringing poetry and the other literary arts to as wide and diverse an audience of Americans as possible. Her generously given slate of appearances here in Athens is strong evidence of this commitment, and all who attend will, I have no doubt, be impressed and moved.”
Dove’s work has appeared in the Review more than a dozen times, and she has been on the Review’s board of advisory and contributing editors since 1993.
The author of nine books of poetry, Dove has written about a range of vital subjects, including history, politics, racism, music and other arts, and family relationships. Her latest book, Sonata Mulattica (Norton, 2009), considers the life of a forgotten historical figure in classical music, George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, a violin prodigy and friend of Beethoven.
“We are lucky to have her come to town,” said Coleman Barks, a poet and retired UGA faculty member. “Rita Dove is one of the great narrative voices in American poetry.”
Poet laureate of the U.S. from 1993 to 1995, Dove is currently Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where she has taught since 1989.
The Review’s presentation of Dove has been designated an American Masterpieces project-with support from the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts and in partnership with the Georgia Council for the Arts. Additional support for her visit is provided by the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library and the Foundry Park Inn and Spa.
