W. S. Di Piero

William Simone Di Piero (born 1945 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and educator. He has published ten collections of poetry and five collections of essays in addition to his translations. In 2012 Di Piero received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement; in making the award, Christian Wiman noted, "He’s a great poet whose work is just beginning to get the wide audience it deserves."^[1]

Life

He grew up in an Italian working-class neighborhood, attended St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia and received a master's degree from San Francisco State University in 1971.

He taught at Louisiana State University, and Northwestern University.^[2] In 1982, he joined Stanford University.^[3][4] He is an Art Critic,^[5] and curated a photography exhibit of Jonathan Elderfield.^[6]

His work appeared in AGNI,^[7] Ploughshares,^[8] and Triquarterly.^[9]

He lives in San Francisco.^[10][11]

Reviews

Poetry may never again be seen as essential equipment for living, but when practiced by W. S. Di Piero it might at least be valued as a handy household appliance.. .. Di Piero's seventh collection, Skirts and Slacks, deserves convenient placement by the telephone, television, computer or radio so as to be ready to retune a static-buzzed mind's reflective potential.^[12]

Brother Fire is a reference to the Catholic saint Francis of Assisi, who, Di Piero explained, addressed objects in nature as Brother or Sister. The title and its related frontispiece “Brother Francis to Brother Leone” elaborate the landscape as a machination of God, wherein each creature, object, and force works in a grand system manifesting the divine will.... Di Piero’s no holier or more certain than the rest of us, and maybe because of that, we can trust him.^[13]

Peter O'Leary reviewing Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems in Poetry:

I find the work solitary, lonely even, which seems, on reflection, a necessary quality for the poet's survival. Though the poems depict vibrant scenes, I sensed them happening inside the poet's head: the circulatory system of Di Piero's spirit tends to swirl his poems into rather ghostlier demarcations than celebrations of the self.^[14]

Awards

• 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.^[1]
• 2008 California Book Award. Gold medal for Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems.^[15]
• 1998–2001 Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Fund grant.^[16]
• 1996 Academy of American Poets Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award. Book prize for This Strange Joy: Selected Poems of Sandro Penna.
• 1985 Guggenheim Fellowship.
• Ingram Merrill Fellowship.
• National Endowment for the Arts grant.^[15]

Works

Poetry collections

• Nitro Nights. Copper Canyon Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-55659-380-2. 
• Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems. Knopf. 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-26538-8. 
• Brother Fire. Random House, Inc. 2006. ISBN 978-0-375-71049-0. 
• Skirts and Slacks. Alfred A. Knopf. 2001. ISBN 978-0-375-41153-3. 
• Shadows Burning. Northwestern University Press. 1995. ISBN 978-0-8101-5019-5. 
• The Restorers. University of Chicago Press. 1992. ISBN 978-0-226-15347-6. 
• The Dog Star. University of Massachusetts Press. 1990. ISBN 978-0-87023-704-1. 
• Early Light. University of Utah Press. 1985. ISBN 978-0-87480-189-7. 
• The Only Dangerous Thing. Elpenor Books. 1984. ISBN 978-0-931972-06-5. 
• The First Hour. Abattoir Editions. 1982. 
• Country of Survivors: Poems. Eric B. Rasmussen Publishing. 1974.

Journal contributions

• ""Pacific Surfliner" Now Arriving San Diego". Poetry. March 2008. 
• "The Invention of Photography". Three Penny Review. Winter 2009. 
• "New Year's Eve at Dave and Sheila's". The Cortland Review. November 1999. 
• "Mowers". The New Criterion. April 2004. 
• "The fruits of the sea". The New Criterion. November 2006. 
• "Overlooking Lake Champlain". Ploughshares. Winter 2006–07. Archived from the original on 2007-05-28. 
• "Raven". Poetry Northwest. Fall-Winter 2008-09.  Check date values in: |date= (help)

Translations

• Sinisgalli, Leonardo (1982). The Ellipse: Selected Poems of Leonardo Sinisgalli. Princeton University Press. 
• Penna, Sandro (1982). This Strange Joy: Selected Poems of Sandro Penna. Translator W. S. Di Piero. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-0328-0. 
• Euripedes (1996). Peter Burian, ed. Ion. Translator W. S. Di Piero. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-509451-0. 
• Leopardi, Giacomo (2005). Pensieri. Translator W. S. Di Piero. Il Merlo Press. ISBN 978-0-9759823-6-5. 

Essays

• City Dog, Northwestern University Press, 2009.
• Shooting the Works: On Poetry and Pictures. Northwestern University Press. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8101-5052-2. 
• Out of Eden: Essays on Modern Art. University of California Press. 1991. ISBN 978-0-585-28070-7. 
• Memory and Enthusiasm: Essays, 1975-1985. Books on Demand. 1989. ISBN 978-0-608-02527-8. 
• "Pollock on Paper". Three Penny Review. Spring 2007. 
• "Gots Is What You Got". Three Penny Review. Fall 1994. 

Anthologies

• Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Atwan, ed. (1995). The best American essays. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-69184-7. 
• David Foster Wallace, Robert Atwan, eds. (2007). Best American Essays. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 978-0-618-70927-4.  CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

References

Further reading

• Domini, John (March–April 2008). "John Domini reviews Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems". American Book Review.  Not available online.
• Rodden, John (1996). "The Translator as Geologist: W. S. Di Piero's Quest for Recognitions". Translation Review. 50. 
• Teicher, Craig Morgan (April 10, 2007). "On the Road with W. S. Di Piero". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2012-04-30.  Question and answer session.
• Chinese Apples: Poems by W.S. Di Piero August 27, 2008, The Leonard Lopate Show: WNYC
• W.S. Di Piero, August 17, 2001, Morning Edition: NPR

Online poetry

• "The Invention of Photography". The Threepenny Review. Winter 2009. 
• "W. S. Di Piero". The Poetry Foundation.  Links to several poems and articles by Di Piero.