Lamont Poet Rita Dove

Lamont Poet Reading Dove

On Wednesday February 22nd, award-winning Lamont Poet Rita Dove will give a reading in Assembly Hall as part of Phillip Exeter Academy’s 2022-2023 Lamont Poetry Series.

Rita Dove is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright and educator who is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, the National Medal of Arts and to date 29 honorary doctorates. She served at the US Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995 and the Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2005 to 2011.  

Dove’s most recent work Playlist for the the Apocalypse (W.W. Norton, 2021), finalist for the 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, is described by the Boston Globe as “A piercing, unflinching new volume offers necessary music for our tumultuous present, from ‘perhaps the best public poet we have’.  

Her previous poetry collections include Collected Poems 1974–2004 (W.W. Norton, 2016), recipient of the 2017 NAACP Image Award, the 2017 Library of Virginia Award and a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award; Sonata Mulattica (W. W. Norton, 2009), winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; On the Bus with Rosa Parks (W. W. Norton, 1999), named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Thomas and Beulah (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1986), which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. 

In addition to poetry, Dove has published a book of short stories, the novel Through the Ivory Gate (Pantheon, 1992), a drama The Darker Face of the Earth, and the song cycle Seven for Luck and the song sequence A Standing Witness.

The reading will be held at 7:30pm in the Assembly Hall, located on the second floor of the Academy Building on Front Street. A book signing will immediately follow the reading in the Academy Building’s Assembly Hall.

The event is free and open to the public. 

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Winter Break & Unrequired Reading

The Library will be closed for winter break beginning Thursday December 22nd and will reopen on January 3rd.

Tuesday January 3rd and Wednesday January 4th we will be open for Visitor Days from 8am – 4pm. We will then resume our normal building hours when classes begin on Thursday January 5th.

While on break PEA students, faculty and staff can continue to access all Library e-resources for both required and unrequired reading, viewing and listening. See our Leisure Reading guide for more information on our apps for audiobooks, ebooks, digital magazines and films.

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