"Cozy Apologia" is published within the collection American Smooth, from 2004. The collection was received well, and noted for it's graceful use of language, which many of Dove's collections have been praised for ever since her first collection, The Yellow House on the Corner, was published in 1980.
It is also worth noting that Dove's work is a marked departure from the Black Arts Movement, which was at its height during Rita Dove's time at the Iowa Writers Workshop. Critics have noted that her work is much more inclusive, both in language and content, then much of what was being produced in the Black Arts Movement, which was a Black nationalist movement during the 60's and 70's.
