Dana Gioia is a poet and critic. He is the author of five collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets’ Prize. His critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. He has written four opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies. Gioia is the former Poet Laureate of California. He also served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009 Gioia is the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California,. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California.