Rita Dove also won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book Thomas and Beulah. She is the recipient of the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, among other achievements.

Rita Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and, most recently, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 Sara Lee Frontrunner Award, the 1997 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities and the 1996 National Humanities Medal.