Gioia to Receive Aiken Taylor Award Feb. 19

The Sewanee Review is proud to announce that Dana Gioia is the recipient of this year’s Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. 

Gioia, known for his poetry, criticism and arts advocacy, holds the newly created Judge Widney Chair in Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California.

The Aiken Taylor Award presentation will be 8:15 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Convocation Hall. Vice-Chancellor John McCardell will present the award to Gioia, followed by a reading by Gioia and a reception. 

Poet David Mason of Colorado College will give a lecture on Gioia’s career at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the McGriff Alumni House, also followed by a reception. There will be opportunities to purchase books at both events.

Gioia’s poetry, criticism and arts advocacy have earned him a swath of formal affirmations. He has been the recipient of 11 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. His widely praised third collection of poems, “Interrogations at Noon,” won the American Book Award. Gioia’s critical collection, “Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture,” was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the “Best Books of 1992.”

This volume also became a finalist for the 1992 National Book Critics Award in Criticism. 

In 1995 Gioia cofounded with Michael Peich the West Chester University summer conference on “Exploring Form and Narrative,” which is now the largest annual poetry-writing conference in the United States.

To learn more about Gioia, go to the Sewanee Review’s website, <www.sewanee.edu/sewanee_review/​aiken_taylor>.

Through the generosity of Dr. K.P.A. Taylor, the Sewanee Review established an annual award 28 years ago honoring a distinguished American poet for the work of a career. Howard Nemerov was the first poet honored and was followed by Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht and W. S. Merwin. 

The other recipients of this prize (which cannot be applied for) include Gwendolyn Brooks, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, William Logan and Debora Greger.