Former California Poet Laureate and Sonoma County resident Dana Gioia will read poems and speak about his life and career at the Frank Chong Studio Theater in Burbank Auditorium in a free event from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28.
Gioia is the author of several books on poetry, literary translation and criticism, which includes “La Oscuridad Intacta,” “The Gods of Winter” and his recently released book, “Meet Me at the Lighthouse.”
Gioia’s work explores personal tragedies, love and his ancestry. Beyond poetry, Gioia has also written opera libretti and worked with jazz and classical musicians.
Gioia was born in Los Angeles to working-class Italian and Mexican-American parents. A graduate of both Stanford and Harvard, Gioia’s path toward becoming a writer was unconventional, to say the least. The first person in his family to attend college, Gioia obtained his bachelor’s degree and master’s in business administration from Stanford University, followed by an master’s degree in comparative literature from Harvard University. He worked as a businessman for 15 years before quitting to become a full-time writer at 41.
Gioia was a well-known writer for over a decade before being appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in 2003 by President George W. Bush. As chairman, Gioia oversaw the development of several programs such as Big Read, Poetry Out Loud and Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience; the latter was the subject of a 2007 documentary of the same name that was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
In 2015, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Gioia as California’s poet laureate. As poet laureate, Gioia was the first to visit all 58 counties in California. This effort was documented in a BBC Radio 3 documentary.
Prospective attendees can also look to his YouTube channel for writing advice, video essays and poetry readings and analyses.
