When Rita Dove was a child, her father broke the race barrier in research chemistry When she grew up, she began breaking down barriers as a writer. In 1970 she was recognized at the White I-louse as one of the hundred most outstanding high school graduates in the United States. In 1973, she graduated summa cum laude (as well as Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi) with a degree in English and then spent the next two summers on Fuibright scholarships to Germany Dove published her first book of poetry in 1980, and in 1987 won the Pulitzer Prize for a book of poems about her grandparents. In 1993. she became the youngest person and the first African American to serve as poet laureate of the United States. In addition to poetry Dove has written and published essays, stories, and a play that was performed in theatres around the world. Currently she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, She and her husband, the writer Fred Viebahn, have a grown daughter