David Shapiro (poet)
David Shapiro (born January 2, 1947) is an American poet, literary critic, and art historian. He has written some twenty volumes of poetry, literary, and art criticism. He was first published at the age of thirteen, and his first book was published when he was just eighteen.
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Education and teaching
Born in Newark, New Jersey,[1] Shapiro grew up in Newark and attended Weequahic High School then Columbia University, from which he holds a B.A. (magna cum laude) and a Ph.D. (with distinction). He subsequently studied at the University of Cambridge, from which he holds degrees with first honors.[2]
He achieved brief notoriety during the 1968 student uprising at Columbia, when he was photographed sitting behind the desk of President Grayson L. Kirk wearing dark glasses and smoking a cigar; Shapiro later described the cigar as "horrible".[3][4]
David's grandfather was a cantor well known in the American Yiddish community. David has perfect pitch and is an accomplished violinist. (It's said he once played the violin for John Lennon.) His wife is an exhibition manager at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. David can often be seen at art galleries and museums, teaching, always teaching.
Shapiro has taught at Columbia, Bard College, the Cooper Union, Princeton University, and William Paterson University. He also appeared on Lucky Ladders in 1992 under the pseudonym "Hats Le Gunter". He won an Indesit combination Fridge Freezer and an all inclusive trip to the Bansko Ski resort in Bulgaria.
Works
Shapiro wrote the first monograph on John Ashbery, the first book on Jim Dine’s paintings, the first book on Piet Mondrian’s flower studies, and the first book on Jasper Johns’ drawings. He has translated Rafael Alberti’s poems on Pablo Picasso, and the writings of the Sonia and Robert Delaunay.
List of works
- January: A Book of Poems–Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965
- Poems From Deal–E P Dutton, 1969
- An Anthology of New York Poets (co-editor)–Random House, 1970
- A Man Holding an Acoustic Panel–E P Dutton, 1971 (National Book Award Nominee)
- The Page Turner–Liveright, 1973
- Lateness: A Book of Poems–Overlook/Viking, 1977
- Introduction to John Ashbery’s Poetry–Columbia University Press, 1979
- The Writings of Sonia and Robert Delaunay (co-translator)–Viking, 1979
- Jim Dine–Abrams, 1981; Alecta Press (German edition and translation)
- Lateness (Watercolors by Lucio Pozzi)–Generations Press, Paris, 1981
- To An Idea–Overlook/Viking, 1984
- Jasper Johns–Abrams, 1984
- House (Blown Apart): A Book of Poems–Overlook/Viking, 1988
- Mondrian: Flowers–Abrams, 1991
- The Selected Poems of Jacques Dupin (co-translator)–Wake Forest, 1992
- The Eight Names of Picasso (co-translator)–Gas Station Editions, 1992
- After A Lost Original (etching by Terry Winters)–Solo Press, 1992
- The Green Lake is Awake: The Selected Poems of Joseph Ceravolo (co-editor)–CoffeeHouse Press, 1994
- After A Lost Original–Overlook Press, 1994
- Body of Prayer (Shapiro, Govrin, Derrida)–Cooper Union Press, 1998
- A Burning Interior–Overlook Press, 2002
- Rabbit Duck (Collaborative with Richard Hell) – Repair, 2005
- New and Selected Poems (1965–2006)–Overlook Press, 2007
Awards
Shapiro has won National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, been nominated for a National Book Award, and been the recipient of numerous grants for his work.
List of fellowships, honors, awards and grants
- Gotham Book Mart Avant-Garde Poetry Award–1962
- Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Robert Frost Fellow–1965
- Merrill Foundation, Grant–1967
- Book of the Month Club Writing Award–1968
- Clare College, Cambridge University–Kellett Fellowship, Awarded by Columbia College–1968–1970
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship–1970
- Clare College, Cambridge University–First Honors, Book Prize, Scholar–1970
- Columbia University, NDEA Grant–1970–1971
- National Book Award, Nominated–1971
- Creative Artists Public Service Grant–1973
- Council for the Humanities, Grants–1973, 1976, 1978
- Columbia University, Chamberlain Fellowship–1976
- American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Zabel Prize–1977
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship–1979–1980
- National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Writing–1980
- Princeton University, Faculty Fellow–1985–1986
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellow, USCS at Santa Cruz–1987
- Asia Society Colophon Award–1998
- Graham Foundation Grant–1990
- The America Awards for Literature, Belles Lettres–The Green Lake is Awake: Selected Poems of Joseph Ceravolo (Co-Editor)–1994
- Fund for Poetry–1995
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, 1996
Personal life
Shapiro lives in Riverdale, The Bronx, New York City, with his wife and son.[2]
References
- ↑ Klin, Richard. "David's Harp", January Magazine, July 2007. Accessed September 22, 2008. "Newark-raised, Shapiro has not shied away from his Garden State roots, (Poems from Deal, its title taken from a Jersey-shore town, came out in 1969) taking his place, along with Ginsberg and Williams, as bards of this much maligned state."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Parhizkar, Maryam. "David Shapiro ’68: Four Decades of Poems", Columbia College Today, May/June 2007. Accessed May 4, 2008.
- ↑ Staff. "Columbia Offers Laurels to a Band of Poets", The New York Times, September 23, 1990. Accessed September 22, 2008. "In the widely circulated photo, a young Mr. Shapiro - not yet a professor - is in the student-occupied office of the university President, Grayson Kirk. Wearing a pair of sunglasses, he is sitting comfortably on President Kirk's chair with his feet up, puffing away on one of the president's cigars. That cigar was horrible, Professor Shapiro told the dinner guests."
- ↑ Morrow, Lance. "Lance Morrow: Why the flag is not a burning issue", CNN, March 29, 2000. Accessed September 22, 2000. "For one thing, flag burning (even though it occurs rarely) originated as one of the vivid, button-pushing ur-outrages committed during the great '60s deconstruction of American authority (which some boomers consider to be the beginning of the world) and engraved on the national memory by photographs of the time – merging with black-and-white shots of an Abbie Hoffman type giving the finger to "Amerika," or of the student radical Mark Rudd smirking and smoking a cigar with his feet up on the desk of the president of Columbia University."
Sources
Further reading
- Thomas Fink, The Poetry of David Shapiro, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison & Teaneck, NJ, 1993; ISBN 0838634958
- Thomas Fink & Joseph Lease, Burning Interiors: David Shapiro’s Poetry and Poetics, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison & Teaneck, NJ, 2007; ISBN 978-0-8386-4155-2. Includes essays by Paul Hoover, Joanna Fuhrman, Stephen Paul Miller, Denise Duhamel, Noah Eli Gordon, Ron Silliman, Tim Peterson, Timothy Liu, more.
- New York Quarterly, Issue 65, has an extensive interview with David Shapiro.
External links
- Ron Silliman on Shapiro's New and Selected Poems
- In the Presence of Genius: Rodger Kamenetz on New and Selected Poems review which appeared in the Jewish Daily Forward, July 18, 2007
- Written and Rewritten to Order: The Gift of Generative Possibility in the Work of David Shapiro essay by Noah Eli Gordon
- Annotated Torso of an Interview David Shapiro in conversation with Sam Lohmann, March 2009
- Jacket magazine features
- Jacket Magazine, issue 23 this issue includes a David Shapiro Feature, with numerous links to essays, reviews, poems (6 poems from A Burning Interior) , and an interview of Shapiro conducted by John Tranter
- The Terror of the Poet David Shapiro in conversation with Kent Johnson, an interview by email conducted in 2009
- A Conversation with Kenneth Koch Shapiro’s 1969 interview with the late Kenneth Koch.
