Dana Gioia
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About
American poet, author, and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman (2003-2009). His acclaimed poetry collections include The Gods of Winter and Interrogations at Noon; the latter work won the 2002 American Book Award.
Before fame
Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked in marketing at General Foods Corporation and promoted Jell-O products.
Trivia
He began teaching at the University of Southern California in 2011.
Family life
He married Mary Elizabeth Hiecke in 1980. One of his three sons died as a baby, and Gioia memorialized the child in his poem "Planting a Sequoia."
Associated with
He was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2008 by then-American President George W. Bush.