Anyone currently involved in the world of literature or literary achievement cannot help but hear the name "Rita Dove". In October 1993, Ms. Dove's poem, Lady Freedom Among Us, was published in a limited edition by Janus Press and became the four millionth piece collected by the University of Virginia Libraries. In 1994, he read the same poem at the Capitol to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Capitol and the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, which adorns the Capitol's roof. This alone should be enough to prove that Rita Dove is probably one of the most accomplished writers in the world todayRita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952 to Ray and Elvira Dove. Rita's father was the first black research chemist to break racial barriers in the tire industry. In 1970, young Dove was one of the one hundred most outstanding graduates in the United States and was invited to the White House to meet with President Nixon as a presidential scholar. He then attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, as a National Achievement Scholar. Ms. Dove graduated summa cum laude in English in 1973 before traveling to Germany to enroll at the Universität Tübingen as a Fulbright Scholar for two semesters. He then returned to join the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa where he met the German writer Fred Viebahn, who was a Fulbright fellow in the University of Iowa's international writing program that year. Mrs. Dove received her Master of Fine Arts in 1977 before marrying Fred in 1979. Their daughter Aviva Chantal Tamu Dove-Viebahn was born in 1983, who graduated from Mary Baldwin College with a degree in theater and biochemistry in 2001 before earning the master. in art history from the University of Virginia in 2003. Journals and anthologies had already begun to promote Ms. Dove's career and gain her national attention before she published her first poetry collection The Yellow House on the Corner in 1980 with Carnegie-Mellon Press..