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Biography Karl Shapiro

U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1946-1947


Karl Shapiro, U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1946-1947.

Karl Shapiro (1913-2000) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and received his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. He wrote and published V-Letter and Other Poems during his service in World War II’s Pacific Theater, and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945. Shapiro taught at the University of Nebraska from 1956-1966, and published more than a dozen poetry collections throughout his career. In addition to his Pulitzer, he won the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1966.

Audio Recordings with Karl Shapiro

Selected Works at the Library of Congress