Olivia DrakeAs an undergrad, John Shapiro '74 dreamed of writing the great American novel. But two things kept him from doing so. "Talent, and discipline," Shapiro says. "So recognizing that eventually, I decided that if you can't do, you can enable." In 2008, Shapiro and his wife, Shonni Silverberg, M.D.'76 made a $3.5M gift to fund a writing center at Wesleyan. And on Nov. 20, the Shapiro Creative Writing Center, located on the top floor of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, was dedicated with a ribbon cutting ceremony. "It's my feeling that by catalyzing this effort, and…
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) has presented the 2009 National Translation Award to Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, for French Women Poets of Nine Centuries: The Distaff and the Pen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). The prize was announced on Nov. 12 at the organization's annual conference in Pasadena, Calif. Shapiro has been one of the foremost translators of French literature for almost four decades. Also a writer-in-residence at Adams House, Harvard University, he has translated numerous works of fiction, theater, and poetry, including Four Farces by Georges Feydeau, which was nominated for the National Book Award for…
Norm Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, is the author and translator of the book Labiche & Co: Fourteen One-Acts by a French Comic Master, published by Performing Books. The book will be released in December 2009. Among the plays included are Bosom Friends, The Brat, A Bee or Not a Bee, It's All Relative, The Unshakeable Suitor, A Nest-Egg Well Scrambled, and A Slap in the Farce, which is currently being performed at Harvard University. In addition, Yale University Press has accepted Shapiro's recent collection of translations from the poetry of French Romantic poet Théophile Gautier to appear in…
Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literature, translated the book To Speak, to Tell, by Sabine Sicaud (1913-1928). The book was published by Black Widow Press in April 2009. The 175-page book features Sicaud's original French poems side by side with Shapiro's English translations.
Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, has won the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division 2008 award for the best single-volume reference work in the humanities and social sciences. The award was for his 1,200-page collection of translations, French Women Poets of Nine Centuries, published by Johns Hopkins, 2008. The AAP awards prizes in several categories, ranging from the humanities and social sciences to life sciences, physical sciences, and medicine. Shapiro's winning single-volume work, competing against multi-volume works, went on to win as well the overall Award for Excellence in Reference Works.
Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, received the Lewis Galantière Award, given biennially by the American Translators Association (ATA) for a distinguished book-length literary translation into English. Shapiro was honored for his volume of critically-praised verse translations, The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (Illinois, 2008). The wisdom, wit, and elegance of La Fontaine (1621-1695), the preeminent fable-writer since Aesop, made him the universally admired master of the genre. This prestigious award honors one of the ATA's founding members, Lewis Galantière (1894-1977), celebrated for his translations from French drama, fiction, and poetry during the middle decades of…
Norman Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, is the editor and translator of French Women Poets of Nine Centuries published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2008. The 1,182 page book features more than 600 poems from 56 different authors. Shapiro provides a window into the development and evolution of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the present.