Rita Dove, the current Poet Laureate of Virginia, was the youngest person to ever become U.S. Poet Laureate, a role she held from 1993-1995. She also received a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for her poetry collection, "Thomas and Beulah." In this interview with "New Letters on the Air"'s Angela Elam, she discusses her two newest collections of poetry. "Mother Love" plays off the myth of Persephone and Dove explores the intense connection between mother and daughter. Her latest collection, "American Smooth" deals with that particular form of ballroom dancing which she and her husband discovered after a devastating house fire. Despite the personal stories within the poetry, Dove always places her work in historical perspective and takes a hard look at our society. "What an artist is compelled to do is to be absolutely, ruthlessly honest and rigorous with the art." Dove says. "That, however, also implies that the wellspring of art is life, therefore you must be absolutely honest and rigorous with the way you observe life and all of the conflicting, ambiguous and sometimes dubious contradictions that life offers up." Rita Dove and her husband, German author Fred Viebahn, live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she teaches at the University of Virginia. A second program featuring Rita Dove aired at the end of February in commemoration of Black History Month. Purchase this or any other past program by going to www.newletters.org and clicking on the "on the air" section. Available to over 400 public radio stations nationwide, New Letters on the Air is distributed weekly via the Public Radio Satellite System, and also is streamed in RealAudio format on our Web site, http://www.newletters.org. New Letters on the Air is public radio’s longest-running literary program, and is a production of New Letters, a magazine of new writing, published at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The program is funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Rita Dove, the current Poet Laureate of Virginia, was the youngest person to ever become U.S. Poet Laureate, a role she held from 1993-1995. She also received a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for her poetry collection, "Thomas and Beulah." In this interview with "New Letters on the Air"'s Angela Elam, she discusses her two newest collections of poetry. "Mother Love" plays off the myth of Persephone and Dove explores the intense connection between mother and daughter. Her latest collection, "American Smooth" deals with that particular form of ballroom dancing which she and her husband discovered after a devastating house fire. Despite the personal stories within the poetry, Dove always places her work in historical perspective and takes a hard look at our society. "What an artist is compelled to do is to be absolutely, ruthlessly honest and rigorous with the art." Dove says. "That, however, also implies that the wellspring of art is life, therefore you must be absolutely honest and rigorous with the way you observe life and all of the conflicting, ambiguous and sometimes dubious contradictions that life offers up." Rita Dove and her husband, German author Fred Viebahn, live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she teaches at the University of Virginia. A second program featuring Rita Dove aired at the end of February in commemoration of Black History Month. Purchase this or any other past program by going to www.newletters.org and clicking on the "on the air" section. Available to over 400 public radio stations nationwide, New Letters on the Air is distributed weekly via the Public Radio Satellite System, and also is streamed in RealAudio format on our Web site, http://www.newletters.org. New Letters on the Air is public radio’s longest-running literary program, and is a production of New Letters, a magazine of new writing, published at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The program is funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.