(Akron, Ohio, 1952) read German literature and is professor in English literature at Virginia University at present. From 1993 to 1995 she was the youngest and very first black Poet Laureate of the United States. She published five collections of poems, one compilation of short stories, a novel and a stageplay in verse.

As a poet she made her debut with The Yellow House on the Corner (1980) in which she tackles themes such as slavery and liberty. In poetryreading circles she earned the reputation of an interesting and promising poetess. Right from the start her poetry covered many aspects: poems on historic and literary subjects alternated with autobiographical and imaginary events.

Those promises turned into reality with Thomas and Beulah (1986), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize - the second Afro-American poetess thus honoured. The collection dramatically increased her readership. Her grandparents' experiences may have inspired its poems which render a fragmentary account of a black couple's life in a penetrating and precise way. Everyday life of black people from the turn of the century till the eighties is described in a series of stories; facets of the widely differing histories of two humans.

Mother Love is the title of Rita Dove's latest (1995) collection, which bears reference to the classic story of Demeter and Persephone. The mother-daughter relationship is described in different perspectives, both modern and classic, and from various angles - those of the mother who once was a daughter herself, and of the daughter on the threshold of her own life. Sometimes we hear the mother, then again the daughter, but also her lover, a neighbour or the poetess herself, subjecting us to varying emotions. This collection too is an expression of Rita Dove's lyrical capacities voicing themselves in an original and powerful way, in her precision and her ability to describe a setting in very few words, be it Paris, Arizona, Mexico or Sicily. Her poetry reaches out to new audiences and opens up new perspectives to those who are familiar with poetry.

Rita Dove initially participated in Poetry International in 1989. Her husband, the German author Fred Viebahn, will be accompanying her this time.