The Open Book series: Pulitzer prize winner Rita Dove

Pulitzer prize-winning poet Rita Dove will be on campus to discuss her book, “Sonata Mullatica,” at 6 p.m. in Capstone campus room.

Rita Dove is one of our country’s most important and well-known poets. A former poet laureate, she has received almost every major award, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Heinz Award, the Common Wealth Award, and the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, as well as more than two dozen honorary doctorates. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Clinton, and President Obama presented her with the National Medal of the Arts in 2011. In her remarkable Sonata Mulattica, Dove imagines the life of the biracial violinist George Bridgetower, best remembered as the first performer and the dedicatee of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata. The New Yorker describes this amazing book as “A virtuosic treatment of a virtuoso’s life, the poems use all registers—nursery rhymes, diary entries, drama—and are stuffed with historical and musical arcana. Yet the book remains highly accessible, reading much like a historical novel.” The Los Angeles Times concurs: “Sonata Mulattica brims with passion for the music, the era and its major and minor characters, resulting in a complete portrait of Beethoven, Bridgetower, and their milieu. But more important, Dove’s masterful collection illuminates the life of a musical genius who might have been lost forever in the braying cacophony of our celebrity-driven times.”

The Open Book is a literary series and community read rolled into one. The 2017 Series will run Mondays and Wednesdays for five weeks: March 27 – April 26, 6-7 pm. Each Monday will feature host Elise Blackwell (or a guest speaker) discussing that week’s book, followed by the author’s talk on Wednesday. Author visits conclude with a book-signing reception.

Sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences, The Open Book is free and open to all.