FACULTY

Dejan Atanackovic 
Laura De Tanti
Silvia Ghelardini
Sue Kennington
Franca Marini
Melissa Morris
Lisa Nonken
Jeff Shapiro
Walter Safatti
Jacqueline Tune
Michael Eldridge
Valeria Indice
Filippo Manganelli
Silvia Giorgi

Jeff Shapiro Professor of Creative Writing


Born in Boston, Jeff Shapiro, a resident of Italy since 1991, has worked as journalist for the British edition of Cosmopolitan and for the U.S.-based magazine International. He co-authored Prone to Violence (Hamlyn Paperbacks, London, 1982), a non-fiction book about violence in the family. His first novel, Renato’s Luck (HarperCollins, New York, 2000) has been translated into German, French, and Dutch, with movie rights optioned to Miramax Films. Secrets of Sant’Angelo, his second novel, was published by Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin USA) in January, 2005. As well as teaching Creative Writing at Siena School for Liberal Arts and at the Siena Art Institute, Jeff teaches English Conversation at l’Università Popolare Senese and has worked on the editorial staff of Verso magazine. He is now at workon his third novel.

My love affair with fiction did not begin as a sudden explosion. First passion took the form of non-fiction writing related to my work in the field of family violence. In time I came to believe that fictionalizing often has a magical way of revealing truths far subtler than those reported by writing that sets out to be objective and factual.

Since moving to Italy in 1991, I have discovered that teaching and writing make for perfect companion professions. Though teaching English as a second language holds intriguing intellectual rewards, nothing can compare with the pure pleasure of teaching Creative Writing. I consider myself amazingly fortunate to teach this subject at the Siena School for Liberal Arts (since 2002) and its partner institution the Siena Art Institute. Never have I found a happier, livelier, warmer, more stimulating or compassionate environment.

I’m in love, too, with living in Italy, the patria of human nature, as historian William Heywood called it. Italy is also the homeland of my wife, Valeria.
Education
1992: Diploma in Italian Language and Culture at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, Siena, Italy. Final grade: Optimum.
1981: BA program in Psychology at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
1977: Diploma cum laude at Newton South High School, Newton, MA. Made member of the National Honor Society.
1977: After 10 years of studying the piano, I received a Certificate of National Honor from the National Board of Music Schools following a performance of Bach before a panel of judges.

 Teaching Experience
  2002 - Present: Teaching a course in Creative Writing at the SienaS chool for Liberal Arts proves to be an ever-evolving, self-renewing adventure.
1996 - Present: I teach Advanced English Conversation at the Università Popolare Senese, Siena, Italy.
2007: Upon request, I organized and conducted a month-long series of intensive ESL seminars at the beginner and intermediate levels for the staff of the Italian Ministry of the Interior (Prefecture), Siena. I have been inscribed in the Ministry of the Interior’s register of language instructors, and am likely to repeat the courses on an annual basis.
2006: Series of Creative Writing seminars for 4th-grade children at the American School, Firenze, Italy.
1993 - 2002: After starting as an English teacher at the Florence-based Scuola 2F, I was promoted to head teacher and then to head of teacher-training and material-development. I taught throughout Tuscany, and conducted ESL teacher-training seminars in Italian cities (including Firenze, Genova, Imperia, San Remo, Torino, Verona, Padova, Como) and in foreign cities (Lugano, Budapest).

 Related Experience
  1982 - 1991: Director and Secretary of Women’s Aid, Ltd., a British charitable organization dedicated to the care of victims of violence in the family.
1982 - 1987: Wrote various articles on the topic of family violence for periodicals such as Victimology: An International Journal, Arlington, VA. Lectured in conferences on family violence in San Francisco, Orlando, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and New Hampshire.

 Publications
    Novels:    Shapiro, J. (2005) Secrets of Sant’Angelo, New York, Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin USA)
   Shapiro, J. (2001) Renato’s Luck (Australian edition), Sydney, Flamingo
   Shapiro, J. (2001) Le rêve di Renato (French translation), Paris, Presses de la Cité
   Shapiro, J. (2001) Renatos traum (German translation), Munich, Karl Blessing Verlag
   Shapiro, J. (2000) De geheimen van Sant’Angelo (Dutch translation), Amsterdam, De Boekerij
   Shapiro, J. (2000) Renato’s Luck, New York, HarperCollins

     Non-fiction
   Pizzey, E. & Shapiro, J. (1982), Prone to Violence, London, Hamlyn Paperbacks

    Short Stories
   Shapiro, J. (2004), "Checkpoint", Verso, Siena
   Shapiro, J. (1997), "My Beethoven", International Magazine, Sag Harbor
   Shapiro, J. (1996), "A Medieval Town Sings the Blues", International Magazine, Sag Harbor

     Articles
   Shapiro, J. (2003), "Why settle for harmony? I Polifonici Senesi and the Merit of Polyphony", Verso, Siena
   Shapiro, J. (1997), "In Search of Chianti", International Magazione, Sag Harbor
   Pizzey, E. & Shapiro, J. (1981-1982), "Talking It Out", monthly column for Cosmpolitan, London
   Pizzey, E. & Shapiro, J. (1981), "Observations on Violence-Prone Families", New Society, London
 
    Translations of works by other authors
   Shapiro, J., english translation of Bonelli, R. (2007), Io, Rompicollo: The story of the woman who raced in the Palio of Siena, Terre de Sienne editrice, Siena
   Shapiro, J., english translation of Coccoli, D. (2007), "Thirty Years of Siena Jazz: the beautiful adventure of the first and only jazz school in Italy (Interview with ‘Papa’ Franco Caroni)", Verso, Siena
   Shapiro, J., english translation of Falassi, A. & Ferri, R. (eds.) (2005), Palio Fragments, Protagon Editori, Siena
   Shapiro, J., english translation of Falassi, Al. & Ferri, R. (eds.) (1998), Palio: The Colours of Siena, Comune di Siena

 Conferences
Shapiro, J., "Motion and Emotion (Muoversi e commuoversi)", presented tri-lingually with Valeria Indice (in Italian) and Rita Sala (in Italian Sign Language) at the Siena School’s conference Movement and Communication, November 17, 2007, Siena, Italy.

 LanguagesEnglish is my native language. Since coming to live in Italy in 1991, I’ve enjoyed the ongoing challenge of making Italian feel as close to native as possible (with only partial success!). Little remains of the French I studied in high school and college; it’s been swallowed up by Italian. I can, on occasion, pray in Hebrew, but would starve if I had to use that language to order food in a restaurant. All I know of Yiddish is the odd yet colorful expletive.MembershipsBoard member and singer in the Polifonici Senesi, a Siena-based chorus to which musically inclined students from the Siena School for Liberal Arts are gladly invited!