Michael Shapiro

Author profile

born

The United States

gender

male

website

http://michaelshapiro.net/

genre

Nonfiction, Biographies & Memoirs

About this author

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Michael Shapiro is a writer, photographer and interviewer who specializes in travel. He’s the author of A Sense of Place and works part-time as an editor at The Press Democrat, in Santa Rosa, Calif.

He is the author of A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration (Travelers’ Tales) a collection of interviews with Bill Bryson, Frances Mayes, Paul Theroux, Peter Matthiessen, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris, Pico Iyer, Isabel Allende, Simon Winchester, and many others. Shapiro’s story about rafting through the Grand Canyon in the wake of John Wesley Powell’s first descent is in The Best Travel Writing 2011. His essay, “The Longest Day” appears in The Best Travel Writing 2005.

His feature about Jan Morris’s Wales w...more Michael Shapiro is a writer, photographer and interviewer who specializes in travel. He’s the author of A Sense of Place and works part-time as an editor at The Press Democrat, in Santa Rosa, Calif.

He is the author of A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration (Travelers’ Tales) a collection of interviews with Bill Bryson, Frances Mayes, Paul Theroux, Peter Matthiessen, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris, Pico Iyer, Isabel Allende, Simon Winchester, and many others. Shapiro’s story about rafting through the Grand Canyon in the wake of John Wesley Powell’s first descent is in The Best Travel Writing 2011. His essay, “The Longest Day” appears in The Best Travel Writing 2005.

His feature about Jan Morris’s Wales was the cover story of the May/June 2006 issue of National Geographic Traveler. Shapiro has written about Kauai for Islands magazine and interviewed Studs Terkel for The Sun, a literary journal. His story on Mongolia’s Nadaam festival ran in the Washington Post’s travel section.

Recently he has interviewed some of the world’s most talented musicians, including BB King, Smokey Robinson, Merle Haggard, Natalie Merchant, Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Greg Brown. He also interviewed Donald Fagan of Steely Dan, Steve Howe of YES, and the inimitable Richard Thompson. See links to stories on the home page.

Shapiro has biked through Cuba for the Washington Post, celebrated Holy Week in Guatemala for the Dallas Morning News, and floated down the Mekong River on a Laotian cargo barge for an online travel magazine. His work also appears in the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times.

Shapiro contributed the text to Guatemala: A Journey Through the Land of the Maya a pictorial book with luminous images by Kraig Lieb, a photographer for Lonely Planet.

Before turning to travel literature, Shapiro researched online travel and wrote two books about using the Net for travel, including Internet Travel Planner. His first book on Net-travel topics appeared in 1997 — subsequent editions appeared in 2000 and 2002. In 1994, he helped develop the first Web directory and magazine, Global Network Navigator, created by O’Reilly Media. Shapiro spent a year working for CNET, an online tech-news site, before embarking on a freelance career in 1998.

The Society of American Travel Writers recognized Shapiro with a 1998 Lowell Thomas award in the “Travel News and Investigative Reporting” category. Shapiro has appeared on national television networks including CNN and PBS, as well as on radio shows ranging from KGO’s “On the Go” to KPFA’s “Morning Show.” He teaches annually at the Book Passage travel writers conference near San Francisco.

Michael lives in Sonoma County, spending his free time cycling, river rafting, sea kayaking and volunteering for ETC, a group that takes disabled people on outdoor adventures.(less)

32 posts
Michael Shapiro's Blog

Michael Shapiro isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

The Bird Men of Mazatlan: Cliff divers wait for tide to come in, Mariner

In the fall of 2009, Mariner magazine asked if I’d go to Mazatlan to write about the cliff divers there. I’d watched cliff divers in Acapulco during the ’70s on ABC’s Wide World of Sports but didn’t know they were still plunging into the sea. I spent three days with the divers, who – if they don’t time their dives right – may crash into way-too-shallow water. Occasionally there are fatalities....

combine editions
Michael Shapiro's Books

Average rating: 3.85 · 305 ratings · 53 reviews · 63 distinct works · Similar authors

	A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration by Michael Shapiro (With), Travelers' Tales Guides (Manufactured by) 3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 98 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together 4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 82 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself 3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Solomon's Sword: Two Families And The Children The State Took Away 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1999 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Jewish 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time 3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage: Boy Heroines and Female Pages 4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1995 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Who Will Teach for America? 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1993 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Guatemala: A Journey Through the Land of the Maya by Michael Shapiro, Kraig Lieb 4.67 of 5 stars 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Children of the Revels: The Boy Companies of Shakespeare's Time and Their Plays 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1977	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Morris Louis Now 5.0 of 5 stars 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2006	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars