Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, is CCNY's 2019 Langston Hughes Medalist.
Rita Dove, recipient of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry and U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, is the winner of The City College of New York’s 2019 Langston Hughes Medal. She will receive the medal on Nov. 14 in CCNY’s Aaron Davis Hall.
The medal is awarded to highly distinguished writers from throughout the African American diaspora at City College’s annual Langston Hughes Festival. Hosted by the Black Studies Program, it recognizes honorees for their impressive works of poetry, fiction, drama, autobiography and critical essays that help to celebrate the memory and tradition of Langston Hughes. Past award winners include:
- James Baldwin;
- Gwendolyn Brooks;
- Toni Morrison;
- August Wilson;
- Maya Angelou;
- Octavia Butler; and
- Hilton Als.
Dove is the author of numerous books, most recently “Sonata Mulattica,” the 2010 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winner; and “Collected Poems 1974-2004,” a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award and winner of the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.
“Thomas and Beulah,” Dove’s book of poems that tells the semi-fictionalized story of her maternal grandparents, earned her the 1987 Pulitzer Prize.
Her other honors include the 1993 NAACP Great American Artist Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Obama and the 1996 National Humanities Medal from President Clinton -- the only poet honored with both arts and humanities medals.
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