NEA head to speak at UD April 6

Dana Gioia

3:36 p.m., March 30, 2006--Dana Gioia, chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will give a talk about the NEA and about his friend and fellow poet, Donald Justice at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, April 6, in the Reserve Room of the Morris Library. A reception will follow the talk. Those interested in attending the presentation can request a printed invitation by calling (302) 831-2231.

Justice's papers, which are housed in the UD library's Special Collections, cover the years 1936-98 and include 10 linear feet of correspondence, poems, essays, reviews, stories, lectures, interviews, sheet music and other works. The collection is open for research and can be accessed online at [www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/justice/index.htm].

Justice has been called an “elder” of American poetry and is the recipient of many grants and prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 and the 1991 Bollingen Prize in Poetry.

He published his first book of verse, The Old Bachelor and Other Poems, in 1951, followed by The Summer Anniversaries in 1960, which won the Inez Boulton Prize and was a Lamont Poetry Selection.

Justice taught at the universities of Missouri and Florida, Syracuse University and at the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa.

The much-honored poet Richard Wilbur described Justice's poems as “made of beautifully plain language and a quiet virtuosity.” Wilbur said, “his sense of time and of the phases of daylight are so exquisite that even present things, in his poems, are touched with memory. There's no one like him--a wonderful poet.”

In 2003, the Library of Congress offered Justice the honorary position of U.S. Poet Laureate, but he was forced to decline because of his health.

A long-time friend of Justice's, Gioia is an internationally acclaimed award-winning poet. He received bachelor's and MBA degrees from Stanford University and a master's degree in comparative literature from Harvard University.

He was nominated by President George W. Bush in January 2003 to become the ninth chairperson of the NEA.

Gioia has published three full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poems, translations, essays and reviews have appeared in many magazines including, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate and The Hudson Review.

His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award, and he is credited with giving rise to popular poetry movements such as poetry slams and cowboy poetry.

Gioia was also a long-time commentator on American culture and literature for BBC Radio. In 2001, he founded "Teaching Poetry," a conference dedicated to improving the high school teaching of poetry. He is the founder and co-director of the West Chester University Poetry Conference, the nation's largest annual all-poetry-writing conference.

For more information on the exhibit and for current library hours, call (302) 831-BOOK.

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