Dana Gioia

Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia's first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won and inventive. Pity the Beautiful is Gioia’s writing at its finest and most mature.

This discussion is free and open to the public. Those wishing to get books signed will be asked to purchase at least one copy of Pity the Beautiful from Vroman's, and one additional copy for every 3 books they bring from home. Save your Vroman's receipt; it will be checked when you enter the signing line.

Location: Street: 695 E. Colorado Blvd City: Pasadena, Province: California Postal Code: 91101 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Poet and former head of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia reads from his long-awaited fourth collection of poetry.

Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia’s first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia’s craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories.

A reception in honor of Dana Gioia, sponsored by his good friends David Fraher and Rebecca Biderman, will follow the reading.

Dana Gioia is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and currently serves as the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. Gioia's creation of a series of NEA National Initiatives combined with a wider distribution of direct grants to reach previously underserved communities making the agency truly national in scope. Through programs such as Shakespeare in American Communities, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, and Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Endowment has successfully reached millions of Americans in all corners of the country. He lives in Washington, DC.

Location: Street: 38 S Snelling Ave City: Saint Paul, Province: Minnesota Postal Code: 55105 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes acclaimed poet Dana Gioia to the store to read from and sign his new collection of poems, Pity the Beautiful, on Wednesday, May 23rd at 7pm.

Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia's first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia's craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories. "In his best poems, Gioia rises to the occasion of all great poetry: to immortalize our experience by submitting it to the test of tradition and inspiration." -- Thomas D'Evelyn, The Christian Science Monitor

Born in Los Angeles in 1950, Dana Gioia attended Stanford University and did graduate work at Harvard, where he studied with Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Fitzgerald. He has published three previous books of poems: Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), and Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award. He is also the author of Can Poetry Matter? (1992; reprinted 2002), and has edited a dozen anthologies of poetry and fiction. A prolific critic and reviewer, he is also a frequent commentator on American culture for BBC Radio.

Location: Street: 5433 College Ave City: Oakland, Province: California Postal Code: 94618-1502 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Dana Gioia

Wednesday, May 2, 7:00 p.m.

Pity the Beautiful: Poems

The long-awaited fourth collection by one of America's foremost poets

O Lord of indirection and ellipses, ignore our prayers. Deliver us from distraction. Slow our heartbeat to a cricket's call. --from “Prophecy”

Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia's first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia's craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories.

Dana Gioia is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and currently serves as the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. He lives in Washington, DC.

This event is FREE to the public.

Location: Street: 1010 El Camino Real City: Menlo Park, Province: California Postal Code: 94025-4349 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Dana Gioia

"Dana Gioia, poet and Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, will discuss the role of poetry in America. The event is part of the Writer’s Center celebration of National Poetry Month, established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to raise visibility for the art of poetry and poetry heritage in the U.S. A poet of note and former vice president of the Poetry Society of America, Mr. Gioia will also read from his own work. Admission to the Writer’s Center event is $5 for members and $8 for non-members.
Reservations are suggested." (writer.org) (SqueakyChu)… (more)