In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding the world's experiments in democracy.

Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or Black Lives Matter, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives-the simmering resentment of a lift operator, an octogenarian's exuberant mambo, the mordant humour of a philosophising cricket.

Audaciously playful yet grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to apocalyptic failures of the human soul.

About the Author
Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate, is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include Playlist for the Apocalypse, Sonata Mulattica, and the National Book Award-shortlisted Collected Poems: 1974-2004. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023 she received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives in Charlottesville, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.

Reviews
"These poems witness and celebrate the grandeur and tragedy contained in a single life, a single moment, a single word." -- Cornelia Channing - New York Magazine
"Playlist for the Apocalypse, Rita Dove's new book of poems, is among her best... You sense the books of many poets of Dove's generation slipping to the back of the bookcase. Not hers." -- Dwight Garner - The New York Times Book Review
"Plenty of poems here address disability, history and quotidian human behavior, but racism and economic oppression are the former poet laureate's primary concerns in this book, her first in 12 years. With Dove's characteristically affable voice, the book tries to understand saving graces and the things they save us from." -- 100 Notable Books of 2021 - The New York Times



Book Information
ISBN 9781324050438
Author Rita Dove
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 136g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 157mm * 10mm