Lauren Shapiro

Assistant Professor of English

Bio

In my creative work, I am interested in exploring the absurdity of contemporary American culture as it is lived by the individual, specifically the juxtaposition of reality television- and celebrity-infused lives with more pressing social and political concerns. My newer work is more meditative in nature and experimental in form and explores themes related to mental illness and loss. I am the author of a collection of poetry, Easy Math (Sarabande, 2013), which was the winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and the Debut-litzer Prize for Poetry, as well as a chapbook of poems, Yo-Yo Logic (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2011). With Kevin González, I co-edited The New Census: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry  (Rescue Press, 2013).

Though I primarily teach courses in poetry, other interests include creative nonfiction, literary translation, and publishing. I have published a handful of essays, and I was an acquiring editor at Yale University Press, where I worked on titles in the categories of history, philosophy, literary studies, and general reference. I have translated poetry and fiction from Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, and Arabic into English; my current focus is on the work of several contemporary Latin American poets.

Education

• M.F.A. in Poetry, Iowa Writers' Workshop
• B.A. in Comparative Literature, Brown University