An introduction to Rita Dove by Grace Cavalieri
In a stunning video, Grace covers the life and work of the first female of color US Poet Laureate
"If critics look at a literary model of a balanced life, the thinking, feeling, sensual, and intuitive, this can be seen as a template for Rita Dove’s writing."
Grace Cavalieri's new web series "20th-Century Poets Commentaries" is off to a strong start with introductions and commentaries on such poets as Robert Hayden, Ted Kooser, Robert Pinsky, and Josephine Jacobsen.
Rita Dove, the first female of color to hold the vaunted position of US poet laureate, claims an important place in late 20th-century poetry and American history.
Her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Thomas and Beulah, Grace explains, displays her use of intuition in creating semi-biographical poems that reach, in Dove's words, to the "inner-truth."
You can support Grace's mission to create a video on every US Poet Laureate (and then some) by buying her book Other Voices, Other Lives.
All of her commentaries are produced by Forest Woods Media (a 501c3).
University of DC Jazz Forum: A Conversation with Reuben Jackson
In this video from the UDC Jazz Forum, jazz scholar, Reuben Jackson, sits down with historian, Rusty Hassan, to discuss his life and career.
Inside the Industry: The Wonderful World of Galleys
Joanna Biggar’s new book has just gone to galley, but what exactly does that mean?
Remembering W.S. Merwin: Grace Cavalieri’s Two Interviews with the Literary Giant
In 2000, the bicentennial of the Library of Congress, four Poets Laureate were appointed just for the occasion. The four dignitaries were W.S. Merwin, Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove, and Louise Gluck. I was to record one after the other for 4 hours. That first meeting with Merwin was unforgettable, as he arrived for an hour interview without so much as one poem in his hands. Fortunately, I had brought ten books for his signature and we puzzled our way through. He was delighted to recognize some of his first slim published volumes that were out of print, as well as a few collector’s items.