The Valor Institute is honored to host poet and critic Dana Gioia for a lecture exploring the vital role of poetry in education. Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet, writer, and arts advocate. Born in Los Angeles to Italian and Mexican parents, he was the first in his family to attend college, earning degrees from Stanford and Harvard before working in business for 15 years. At 41, Gioia left the corporate world to pursue writing full-time, becoming a leading voice in the revival of rhyme, meter, and narrative in contemporary poetry. His works include five poetry collections, such as 99 Poems: New & Selected and Interrogations at Noon, which won the American Book Award.

Gioia is also a celebrated critic, known for his influential essay collection Can Poetry Matter?, which helped restore poetry’s relevance in American public life. As Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, he created transformative programs like Poetry Out Loud and The Big Read, bringing literature to millions. Later, as California Poet Laureate, he became the first to visit all 58 counties, championing the arts statewide. In addition to his literary achievements, Gioia has collaborated with renowned composers and musicians across genres. His lecture promises to inspire educators, students, and lovers of the arts to embrace the enchantment of poetry as a pathway to deeper human flourishing.

About the Valor Institute

The Valor Institute is a creative response to the unique challenges of our time: reductive ideologies, mechanized views of the natural world, and communities fractured through impoverished public discourse. At stake is the meaning of human life in community. Responding to these trends that flatten our culture, the Institute seeks to deepen our engagement with reality by cultivating wisdom, gratitude, and friendship.