Sometimes creative people are born into families who are equally creative. Often, though, there are more covert creative forces at work within a family. Such was the situation with Poet Laureate Rita Dove.

She was born in Akron, Ohio to parents who were successful in their chosen careers. Her father, Ray Dove, was the first African American chemist to pursue a career in the tire industry. He spent much of his professional working life at Goodyear as a research chemist. While to some minds, tire chemistry may not sound creative, but anyone engaged in research is on a voyage of discovery, of bringing about new ideas and ways of making things work.

Dove's mother, Elvira Hord, was a voracious reader and lover of literature, and her daughter grew up surrounded by the wonder of books and stories. So, it was probably no surprise to her family when Dove graduated from high school as a Presidential Scholar (only one hundred students were selected for that honor, nationwide, the year of her graduation, 1970). Dove went on to earn a B.A. from Miami University, graduating summa cum laude, and took her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Between her undergraduate and graduate programs she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for study at Eberhard Karls University, in Tubingen, Germany.

She began her teaching career in 1981, as an instructor of creative writing at Arizona State University. In 1987 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. A crowning achievement came in 1993, when at the age of only forty she was named Poet Laureate of the United States. She was the youngest person to hold that position and to date the only African American.

While Gwendolyn Brooks was named Consultant in Poetry for 1985-86, this was before Congress renamed the position Poet Laureate. Along with Louise Gluck and W.S. Merwin, Dove served the Library of Congress again from 1999-2000 as a Consultant in Poetry. In 2004, she was appointed by then-governor Mark Warner of Virginia to the position of Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth.

Throughout her public appointments, Dove focused on introducing and enlightening more of the population to poetry and pointing out the many advantages of reading literature. She began teaching at the University of Virginia in 1989, and now holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English.

Dove has a wide range of poetic and literary interests, and so her work cannot be pigeon-holed into a specific style or category. One quality that critics have noted throughout her career is her ability to capture complex emotions. She has to date published nine volumes of poetry, a book of short stories, a collection of essays, and a novel. She has also published and staged a play, collaborated with composer John Williams, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Despite her hectic schedule, Dove and her husband, Fred Viebahn are enthusiastic ballroom dancers and have participated in competitions of ballroom dancing. The couple has one child, a daughter, Aviva.