Dana Gioia is the author of three collections of poetry, including the 2002 American Book Award winner Interrogations at Noon. Also an influential critic, Gioia's 1991 collection of essays, Can Poetry Matter?, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His new collection, Pity the Beautiful, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2012. A translator, librettist, and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia spoke with WLT's managing editor about the revival of form and narrative in poetry, his "idiosyncratic poetics," and his collaborations with artists in different disciplines inside the September 2011 issue.