Spring Break
"The Only Person Who Went to Business School to Become a Poet":
Dana Gioia, Chairman of the NEA and Former VP, at General Foods, Speaks at Radcliffe Yard
Pearle Lee (NH), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 3/8/04 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
Gioia spoke of his personal history and motivations for accepting the political appointment. Raised by working class parents whose only wish was to have a "dentist in the family," he was inspired by his teachers to develop his literary talents instead. A native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent, Gioia was the first member of his family to attend college. He received a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.
Gioia found that academia distanced him from his natural love of language. In contrast, he found at the Stanford Graduate School of Business an atmosphere that was "intellectually entirely unaffected" and enrolled there. Describing himself as probably "the first person in human history who went to business school to become a poet," he supported his writing for fifteen years by working as an executive for General Foods in New York, eventually becoming Vice President of Marketing.
After the death of his child at four months from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, he quit his job. Although he appreciated the "interesting milieu" at General Mills, he vowed "never to work at a large institution again."
For the next twelve years he made his living as a writer. Trained in music, Gioia was the classical music critic for San Francisco magazine for six years. He was a commentator on American culture and literature for BBC Radio. His poems, translations, essays, and reviews appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate and The Hudson Review.
His poetry was set to music by many composers in genres from classical to rock, including a full-length dance theater piece, Counting the Children.
He wrote two opera libretti, including Nosferatu (2001), with composer Alva Henderson, published by Graywolf Press.
Gioia published a translation of Italian Nobel Prize-winning poet Eugenio Montale's Mottetti (1990) as well as two large anthologies of Italian poetry.
