View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Iowa Research Online Masthead Logo The Iowa Review Volume 19 Article 37 Issue 3 Fall 1989 Coming Home: An Interview with Rita Dove Steven Schneider Rita Dove Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview Part of the Creative Writing Commons Recommended Citation Schneider, Steven and Rita Dove. "Coming Home: An Interview with Rita Dove." The Iowa Review 19.3 (1989): 112-123. Web. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065X.3814 This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in The oI wa Review by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Coming Home: An Interview with Rita Dove Steven Schneider Rita Dove won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1987 for her book Thomas and Beulah. SS: How does it feel to be the first black woman poet sinceGwendolyn Brooks to win the Pulitzer Prize? RD: My first reactionwas quite simply disbelief. Disbelief that first of all there hasn't been another black person since Gwendolyn Brooks in 1950 to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, though there certainly have been some a outstanding black poets in that period. On public level, it says something nature in a about the of cultural politics this country. It's shame actually. a On personal level, it's overwhelming. SS: Did you feel you had written something special when you completed Thomas and Beulah? I RD: felt I had written something larger than myself, larger than what I to not as a as a had hoped for it be. I did begin this sequence book; it began a poem. The book grew poem by poem, and it wasn't until Iwas about third of theway through that I realized itwould have to be a book. So I grew with it and I had to rise to it. I started with the Thomas poems to more as because Iwanted understand my grandfather ?what he was like a young man, how he grew up and became the man I knew. To do that on on though, I realized pretty early that I could rely neither my memories of him nor on the memories of my mother or her sisters or brothers, but I had to get to know the town he lived in.What was Akron, Ohio like in the '20s and '30s? It was different from the Akron I knew. That meant I a never on had to go to the library and read whole bunch of stuff I counted to to a sense researching try get of that period of time in the industrial Midwest. On other levels, I had to enter male consciousness in a way which was?well, I knew I could do it for one or two poems but this was an was a extended effort. I really, at certain point, very very driven to be as as to or honest I could possibly be. Also, I didn't want impose my language ? my sensibility upon their lives. And things got SS: Things got very complicated? RD: That's right. 112 University of Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Iowa Review ® www.jstor.org SS: Did you have a different kind of satisfaction about finishing this book than your other two books? to more RD: It was different. I am not going say Iwas satisfied; I don't a was a think I have favorite book of mine. But there feeling of relief be cause I had made it through. SS: How long did it take you to write Thomas andBeulah? was on RD: About five years. I working theMuseum poems in the middle of that, too. So, altogether five years. to me SS: You've mentioned that your life has been quite hectic since you won the Pulitzer. How does this affect your life and your writing? a RD: First of all, the act of writing is such private, basic matter. It's you a room a and the poem, you and the pencil and the paper in under circle of essence lamplight. And that is the of writing. A public life, then, becomes on one to to schizophrenic; the hand, you have extend yourself and talk an cannot people about your writing, experience which you really articu to late. To talk about private experience total strangers is very schizo a to out phrenic. Once in while it's good get and do readings because the on are shadows the wall grow large when you writing. But in this past year a a too ?or and half, I sometimes feel I have been little public let's just say I on feel the public encroaching the private time. to are to SS: Are things getting back normal now? Do you find you able on a work regular schedule? are to reasons. RD: Things getting back normal for several One of them is that I think I've learned a little bit how to livewith the public life and not sector. not to let it affect the private Also how feel guilty about saying "No." some a so can SS: For writers, winning such prize young block their to come. to creative output for years How do you respond creatively the pressures of fame? RD: I remember when I first got the Pulitzer, the question that came up in every interview was: "Does this put pressure on you now for your next in me out book?" And those first weeks afterward, the question always hit of left field.What did they mean? SS: You didn't feel pressured until they started asking you. at a an RD: Exactly. I didn't feel it all. So in way, it is artificial pressure. one num It's particularly artificial if really sits down and thinks about the ber of people who have gotten Pulitzers and how many of them stayed 113 at "famous." If you look the list, it's very interesting. Nothing's guaran teed. some SS: So Pulitzer winners have declined in reputation? RD: Sure, some Nobel Laureates as well. SS: So that takes some pressure off? RD: Right. And taking that further, what does itmean? Imean it's won room derful, but in the end, what is important to me? When I go into the to a mean a am as and try write poem, the Pulitzer doesn't thing. I still just challenged by the blank page. SS: Much has been said about the number of black writers who seem to re have been ignored by the literary establishment. This surfaced again cently when James Baldwin died. Do you think the literary establishment has been unfair to black writers? course not RD: Of it has been unfair ?this is true only for black writers, but for other minorities as well. It is outrageous that James Baldwin never a got Pulitzer Prize. It's outrageous that Ralph Ellison didn't get every lit erary award around for Invisible Man. to canon more SS: There have been recent attempts revise the and to give to attention to women writers and minority writers in America. Are you gratified by these attempts? Are they going far enough? I are are RD: think they absolutely necessary. I can't say whether they go ing far enough: it depends where, in what context. But it's important to to out. or try round those things Let's face it: if Gwendolyn Brooks Toni are not on Morrison the reading lists for Ph.D. dissertations, students aren't going to read them. SS: So what do you think your winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry means to other young black American writers? was a me RD: When I growing up it would have meant lot to to know a or that black person had been recognized for his her writing. Thomas and a ones Beulah is book about black Americans, and two very ordinary at that. Nothing spectacular happens in their life. And yet this "non-sensa a tional" double portrait is awarded prize. That's what is important. You some SS: mentioned you talked recently with South African writers. more Does winning the Pulitzer Prize give you political leverage and visibility? RD: The Pulitzer does carry international credentials. In the past year and a half I have had increased opportunities to talk and to meet with writers of 114 see other countries and to how they live. Because of the Pulitzer, I got the chance to do a conversation via satellite with some South African writers. I not a may have the chance of going there, which is certainly going to be to see pleasure trip. I feel the need the situation there for myself if it's pos sible. SS: Let's talk about Thomas and Beulah. Your interest in these characters a as a resulted from story your grandmother told you child. Is that right? in was RD: Yes. That story actually became the first poem the book. I or me about ten twelve when she told about my grandfather coming north on a river boat; it seems he had dared his best friend to swim the river, and a event. the friend drowned. This was, for me, phenomenal My grand man. see father had been a very gentle and quiet Frankly, I couldn't how he could have carried that kind of guilt around all those years.