The Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Distinguished Lecture Series brings nationally-known scholars concerned with promoting culture through the humanities and a better understanding of the problems of democracy to ASU. This annual free public lecture is funded with a gift from Jonathan and Maxine Marshall.
2022 Lecture
An Evening with Rita Dove
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
7 p.m. | Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Roskind Great Hall (ARM 101, ASU Tempe campus
RSVP for in-person event
About the Speaker
Rita Dove is the author of "Thomas and Beulah," a collection of forty-four connected, narrative poems that won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her “Collected Poems 1974–2004,” released in 2016, includes three decades of her work and multiple books of poetry and showcases the diversity in her work.
In addition to poetry, Dove has published a book of short stories, the novel "Through the Ivory Gate" and numerous essays. She also edited "The Best American Poetry 2000," "The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry" and The New York Times Magazine’s weekly poetry column from 2018 to 2019.
From 1993 to 1995, Dove served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person and the first African American to have been appointed to this position since it was created by an act of Congress in 1986.
Dove’s numerous honors include Lifetime Achievement Medals from the Library of Virginia and the Fulbright Association, the 2014 Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets and the 2021 Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as the sixteenth (and third female and first African American) poet in the Medal’s 110-year history.
She also received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton in 1991 and, in 2011, the National Medal of Arts from President Obama — making her the only poet ever to receive both medals.
Dove has attended Miami University of Ohio, Universität Tübingen in Germany and the University of Iowa, where she earned her creative writing MFA. From 1981 to 1989, Dove taught creative writing in the Department of English at ASU.
Parking information
Visitor parking is available in several lots and parking garages near the venue. All parking fees are the responsibility of event attendees. For a list of parking locations and associated fees, please visit https://cfo.asu.edu/daily-and-hourly.
Past lectures
| Year | Lecturer | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Clint Smith III | A conversation with Clint Smith |
| 2020 |
Colson Whitehead |
A conversation with Colson Whitehead and Solmaz Sharif |
| 2018 | Claudia Rankine | Award-winning author |
| 2017 | Roger Cohen | The Disunited States: Trump and the Fracturing of America |
| 2016 | Amy Goodman | Host and executive producer of Democracy Now! |
| 2015 | Jane Smiley | Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, essayist and biographer |
| 2014 | Charles Blow | Visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times |
| 2013 | David Walsh | Chief sports writer of the British newspaper The Sunday Times |
| 2012 | Russ Feingold | Former senator, public speaker, educator. |
| 2011 | Nikki Giovanni | World-renowned poet, activist and educator |
| 2010 | Kerry Kennedy | International human rights advocate and author |
| 2009 | Heather Rae | Award-winning Cherokee film director and producer |
| 2008 | Calvin Trillin | Humorist, journalist and author |
| 2007 | Robin Wright | Acclaimed journalist |
| 2006 | Jon Meacham | Managing Editor of Newsweek |
| 2005 | Seymour Hersh | Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist |
| 2004 | Paul Krugman | Professor, Economist, Author and New York Times Columnist |
| 2003-cancelled | Wendy Wasserstein | Playwright |
| 2002 | Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. | Senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council |
| 2001-cancelled | Martha Nussbaum | Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago |
| 2000 | Baruch Blumberg | Director, NASA's Astrobiology Institute |
| 1998 | Martin Marty | Director, Public Religion Project, University of Chicago School of Divinity |
| 1997 | Daniel Goldhagen | Author, “Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” |
| 1997 | Arthur Caplan | Director, Center of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania President, American Association of Bioethics |
| 1996 | Doris Kearns Goodwin | Pulitzer Prize winning historian |
| 1995 | Lester Brown | Founder, WorldWatch Institute |
| 1994 | Thomas Wicker | Former editorial columnist, The New York Times |
| 1993 | Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. | Pulitzer Prize winning historian |