Dana Gioia, poet and Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts, will discuss the role of poetry in America on Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Writer?s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, Maryland.

The event is part of the Writer?s Center celebration of National Poetry Month, established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to raise visibility for the art of poetry and poetry heritage in the U.S. A poet of note and former vice president of the Poetry Society of America, Mr. Gioia will also read from his own work.

Mr. Gioia was appointed Chairman of the NEA in 2003. Under his direction, the NEA has supported new programs that promote wider awareness of literature and creative writing. His ?Shakespeare in Communities” project has brought the Bard to small towns across the U.S. In 2005, he began the "Big Read" program, seeking to get Americans to read serious literature.

He holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. where he studied with the poets Robert Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Bishop, and a M.B.A. from Stanford University. In 1992 he left General Foods where he was a Vice President to become a full-time writer. The author of three full-length books of poetry, his third collection of poems, Interrogations at Noon (2001), won the American Book Award.

The Writer?s Center is one of the country?s premier community-based literary centers offering writing workshops in all genres and skill levels. PoetLore, one of the oldest continuously published poetry magazines in the United States, is now published under the stewardship of the Writer?s Center.

Admission to the Writer?s Center event is $5 for members and $8 for non-members.