Our People

Biography

Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and arts leader. He is the author of numerous books, including Interrogations at Noon (2002), which won the American Book Award in poetry, and Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was short-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Prize. A translator and opera librettist, Gioia has also edited over two dozen literary anthologies.

Gioia served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009 where he helped create the largest programs in the agency’s history, including the Big Read, Shakespeare in American Communities, and Poetry Out Loud. He also led the U.S. cultural delegation to UNESCO.

Gioia was born in Los Angeles in 1950. He attended Stanford (BA), Harvard (MA in Comparative Literature), and Stanford Business School (MBA). Before becoming a full time writer in 1992, he worked for 15 years in the corporate world—while writing at night and weekends—becoming Vice President of Marketing for Kraft-General Foods.

Gioia has been a visiting writer at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Colorado College, Wesleyan, and other universities. He has also been an American cultural correspondent for BBC Radio. He served on numerous boards and has ten honorary doctorates

 He lives in Washington, D.C. and Sonoma County, California with his wife and two sons.