Alan Shapiro

After the Digging provides an exceptional look at the early work of acclaimed poet Alan Shapiro. His first collection of poems allows readers to realize his strong sense of historical narrative and gives them reference on how to read his later poems. Inspired by his time at Stanford in the late seventies, the book is divided into two parts: the first is a sequence on the Irish Famine in the mid-nineteenth century; the second, a series on demonic possession in late seventeenth-century New England. These poems give voice to the pain and delusion of those from other periods and inevitably recall the many evils of our own century. "Powerful...That a young poet can handle this subject so well in a first book is ...a pleasure in itself."--Robert von Hallberg, Contemporary Literature, 1981

This is the coming-of-age story of an American Jew and aspiring writer in the 1960s and 1970s. In this memoir in six movements, Alan Shapiro recalls how poetry helped him make sense of his own and other people's lives. Events unfold, including his sister's death, which make him reconsider the transformative power of art and accept the limitations of poetry in confronting the untransformable pain of mortal loss.

What's Your Golf Personality? According to Dr. Alan Shapiro, the personality traits that cause problems in your everyday life can also wreak havoc on your golf game. If you're a worrier, chances are you're also anxious at the tee. If you're a control freak, you probably overanalyze your swing and tend to freeze up over the ball. If you have a short fuse, there is a good chance you're a club thrower. Using his experience as a psychologist and a devoted golfer, Dr. Shapiro has identified six major golf personality types or "Mental Hazards." Just take the simple, forty-eight-question quiz provided to determine your Mental Hazard Profile, then read and apply Dr. Shapiro's customized advice for overcoming the Mental Hazards that plague you on and off the course. No matter what your handicap, the unique approach of Golf's Mental Hazards will lead to increased self-awareness and lower golf scores, finally putting an end to the self-destructive round.

The Last Happy Occasion is the coming-of-age story of an American Jew and aspiring writer in the sixties and seventies. In this memoir in six movements, Alan Shapiro recalls how poetry helped him make sense of his own and other people's lives. Events unfold, including his sister's death, that make him reconsider the transformative power of art and accept the limitations of poetry in confronting the untransformable pain of mortal loss. A refreshingly honest, lovingly crafted work, The Last Happy Occasion is a treasure map for anyone interested in exploring the intersections of life and art. "[Shapiro] seeks what lies at the deepest level of the human heart to mitigate his--and our--separateness from others."--Chase Collins, Chicago Tribune Books "Shapiro, not unlike Auden, doses his wordplay with a certain sly irony...We come away from Shapiro's book with an intimate appreciation of the little subversions that poetry can work in one's life."--Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times "The Last Happy Occasion is touching and intelligent, emotionally satisfying and eloquent testimony to the power of poetry to instruct, heal and inspire." --Emily Barton, New York Times Book Review "The literary criticism is sharp, but what enthralls the reader more is Shapiro's humorous but honest perspective on his younger self, a perspective that is critical without being condescending."--Heller McAlpin, Newsday "He is an acute observer of moments, people, art and language. And he packs even seemingly simple stories with many layers of meaning...He shows us the power and importance of transformative art in life."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

Respected poet, teacher, and critic Alan Shapiro continues his much-acclaimed explorations of childhood, family, and marriage in Mixed Company. Revealing a world troubled by difference while struggling toward commonality, and with equal attention to historical detail and the poetics of everyday life, from the mythic past to the abrasive intimacies of the present, Shapiro charts the many ways our social and sexual identities are formed, threatened, altered, and, for good or ill, preserved. Deeply felt and ambitious, Mixed Company is an extraordinary book by one of the leading poets writing in America today. "What draws us into Alan Shapiro's Mixed Company is not a conspicuous felicity or any sort of bravura, but the quiet, undaunted way he goes after the truth of human feeling and motive...The poems grope and conjecture, looking for understanding ...but whatever may remain unsolved and insoluble, the poems are full of astonishing insights, a rare articulateness, and what another age called 'knowledge of the human heart.'" --Richard Wilbur

Respected poet, teacher, and critic Alan Shapiro continues his much-acclaimed explorations of childhood, family, and marriage in Mixed Company. Revealing a world troubled by difference while struggling toward commonality, and with equal attention to historical detail and the poetics of everyday life, from the mythic past to the abrasive intimacies of the present, Shapiro charts the many ways our social and sexual identities are formed, threatened, altered, and, for good or ill, preserved. Deeply felt and ambitious, Mixed Company is an extraordinary book by one of the leading poets writing in America today."What draws us into Alan Shapiro's Mixed Company is not a conspicuous felicity or any sort of bravura, but the quiet, undaunted way he goes after the truth of human feeling and motive. . . . The poems grope and conjecture, looking for understanding . . . but whatever may remain unsolved and insoluble, the poems are full of astonishing insights, a rare articulateness, and what another age called 'knowledge of the human heart.'" —Richard Wilbur

Alan Shapiro is not only a much-lauded poet but also one of America's most intelligent and clearheaded thinkers about poetry. In Praise of the Impure collects his passionate, rigorously argued essays on the situation of poetry in American culture today.