Rita Dove, the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, has been selected to received the Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement from Oregon State University. The Stone Award was established in 2011 to highlight the work of the creative writing program in the university’s School of Writing. Literature, and Film. The award comes with a $20,000 prize. Professor Dove will accept the award and read from her work at Oregon State University in April 2016.
Professor Dove, who served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987. She is the only poet to receive the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts.
Professor Dove is a summa cum laude graduate of the Miami University and holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.