Dana Gioia – Official Site – Official site for poet and critic Dana Gioia

"Composer Lori Laitman and I were asked by Lyric Opera of Kansas City to compose a one-act work to introduce young children (think third grade) to the art form. Here are two songs from Maya and the Magic Ring, which just had its world premiere. The first is sung by the Genie, the second by a Cat who has been given the power to talk."

Nobody Trusts a Genie

"I am the King of the Cats"

Weep, Shudder, Die

A BOOK ABOUT OPERA UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Available from Paul Dry Books.

I enjoyed it immensely (I read it in one intense sitting), and recommend it with the utmost enthusiasm." - Ken Meltzter, Fanfare

"How I Write": David Perell Interviews Dana Gioia

This short film documents the creation of Fiat Lux, a new symphonic choral work by Dana Gioia and composer Sir James MacMillan with the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale.

In the essays in Poetry as Enchantment—more personal than any of his earlier works—Dana Gioia shares a lifetime of thought and experience about poetry. Gioia, the author of Can Poetry Matter?, talks about poetry in a radically different way than it is currently being taught or discussed. In the title essay, he explains that poetry is speech raised to the level of song, and though poetry may often be misunderstood as intellectual, it moves us the way music does. Poetry charms its readers, creating a heightened experience of attention. It addresses readers in the fullness of their humanity, simultaneously speaking to the mind, emotions, imagination, memory, and physical senses. Without academic jargon, Poetry as Enchantment relates literature to the questions of life.