James S. Shapiro

Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, James Shapiro is a Shakespeare scholar with a broader interest in early modern British culture. He is the author of the award winning 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005). His most recent book is The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606.  He is also the author of Shakespeare and the Jews, Oberammergau, Contested Will, and has edited a Library of America collection, Shakespeare in America.  Shapiro has co-directed two National Endowment for the Humanities Institutes on Shakespeare, and co-authored and presented a pair of documentaries for the BBC. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. He writes for a number of periodicals, including The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and The London Review of Books. Professor Shapiro is a Governor of the Folger Shakespeare Library, serves on the Board of Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York.