The National Book Foundation, administrator of the annual National Book Awards, just announced that Rita Dove is the recipient of this year's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She is only the fourth poet to be so honored, after Gwendolyn Brooks in 1994, Adrienne Rich in 2006 and John Ashbery in 2011. She'll receive the prize during this year's National Book Awards ceremony in New York on November 15.

Here are the links to the National Book Foundation's press release and to the Associated Press article.