Dana Gioia

Poet

Birthday December 24, 1950

Birth Sign Capricorn

Birthplace Hawthorne, CA

Age 75 years old

#283,924 Most Popular

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.