Poetry Night Reading Series: Dana Gioia

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature California poet laureate emeritus Dana Gioia at 7 PM on Thursday, March 16th, 2023, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.

Dana Gioia is the former Poet Laureate of California. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he is the author of six collections of verse, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets’ Prize for the best new poetry volume of the year. His latest poetry book, Meet Me at the Lighthouse, has just been published by Graywolf Press.

Gioia’s critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award, and which inspired Dr. Andy’s radio show and our Poetry Night reading series, and Studying with Miss Bishop: Memoirs from a Young Writer’s Life (2022).

He has also written four opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies. Gioia served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009 where he created major national programs such as The Big Read and Poetry Out Loud.

Gioia was born in Los Angeles in a working-class family of Italian and Mexican heritage. He was the first person in his family to attend college. He earned a BA and MBA from Stanford and an MA from Harvard. For fifteen years he worked in business in New York, becoming a vice-president of Kraft-General Foods. He wrote at nights and on weekends. In 1992 he quit to become a full-time writer.

He has been awarded eleven honorary doctorates and many honors, including the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame, the Presidential Civilian Medal, the Poet’s Prize, the Walt Whitman Champion of Literary Award, and the Aiken-Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry. He served as the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California before retiring in 2020 to return to full-time writing.

This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street) at 7 PM on Thursday, March 16th, 2023. There will be a Q&A after Dana Gioia’s reading, followed by an open mic, so be sure to prepare your questions. Open mic performances will be limited to five minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. As Robert Southey says, “Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour. Attendees who request to be added to the list after 7 PM will be invited to try again at a subsequent event.

We recommend that you wear a mask to Poetry Night. According to a Yolo County December 6 press release, “This winter is the first in several years where we are seeing significant flu and RSV activity, in addition to COVID-19, so we are now making masking recommendations based on all circulating respiratory viruses, not just on COVID,” said Yolo County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. “Wearing a high-quality mask indoors is a great way to protect yourself and others from respiratory viruses like flu, RSV, and COVID-19.” This spring, we will likely return to the roof sculpture garden where we can all breathe freely.

The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, and by John Natsoulas and the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. This event is supported by Katerina Hanks, producer of The Poetry Night Reading Series.

Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com.