Today we have Dana Gioia on the show. Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent. The first person in his family to attend college, he received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. For fifteen years he worked as a businessman before quitting at forty-one to become a full-time writer. We will be focusing on Gioia’s survey of California Poetry that was published in 2003. Please enjoy our winding and wide-ranging conversation on the history of poetry in California.
In the third episode in the series, we turn our focus to Democratic Party in California.
In this episode, we talk about the forces driving toward the eventual conflict with Mexico.
In this episode, we learn about Drake's brief sojourn in California to repair his ship.