Poet Rita Dove was recently named the winner of the $50,000 Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service for Literature. The annual award, funded by a trust established by the late philanthropist Ralph Hayes and administered by PNC Bank of Delaware, is given to an “individual who has enriched and improved the world through exceptional lifetime achievements.”
Dove, whose most recent book is American Smooth (W.W. Norton, 2004), is the recipient of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book Thomas and Beulah (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1986), and has served two terms as U.S. poet laureate.
Past recipients of the Common Wealth Award, which has conferred more than $3.5 million since 1979, include Isabel Allende, Joyce Carol Oates, and Amy Tan.
