Dana Gioia is a poet and critic. He has published five full-length collections of verse, most recently 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets’ Prize. His third collection, Interrogations at Noon (2001), received the American Book Award. He has also published four critical collections, including Can Poetry Matter? which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award.
Gioia has written four opera libretti and collaborated with musicians in genres from classical to jazz and rock. For six years Gioia served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He also served as California Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2019. For nine years he taught poetry and arts leadership at USC as the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County.
