by Michael Shapiro | Feb 1, 2022 | Books, Interviews, Stories
I may not have chosen a lucrative career but there’s no one better than Peter Coyote to help me see that there are far more valuable riches than money. Bottom line: I didn’t earn much for this story but got to spend nearly three hours with Peter at his...
by Michael Shapiro | May 1, 2018 | Blog, Books, Interviews, Literature, Stories, Travel
I’ve long felt a kinship with Wales, perhaps because it’s where one of my favorite writers, Jan Morris, lives. Recently I had the chance to stay overnight and tour Dylan Thomas’s boyhood home in Swansea. Then I visited his other homes in Laugharne...
by Michael Shapiro | Apr 9, 2018 | Blog, Books, Food, Interviews, Stories, Travel
There’s nothing better than an editor asking you to go to a city you love and find the best places for food, wine, beer and chocolate. I traveled there last year, stopped briefly (for 2 hours, which is fast) at Powell’s City of Books, then got to work...
by Michael Shapiro | Aug 8, 2017 | Blog, Books, Food, Interviews, Literature, Stories, Travel
I first interviewed Frances Mayes at her home in Tuscany in 2003 for my book of interviews with travel writers, A Sense of Place. It was a pleasure to speak with Mayes again in autumn 2016 for a story about the cuisine of this region of Italy, where food appreciation...
by Michael Shapiro | Mar 11, 2016 | Blog, Books, Interviews, Literature, Stories, Travel
Ever since I read The House of the Spirits in the 1980s I’ve adored Isabel Allende. She’s a natural-born storyteller, warm-hearted and insightful with a wicked sense of fun. I had the opportunity to interview her for my 2004 book of interviews with...
by Michael Shapiro | Aug 9, 2015 | Blog, Books, Interviews, Literature, Stories, Travel
I first interviewed Paul Theroux in 2004 for my book, A Sense of Place, a collection of interviews with the world’s leading travel writers. Though some consider him brusque, blunt and — this irritates him the most — curmudgeonly, I found him to be...
