William Simone Di Piero 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 The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordina ...

for his lifetime achievement; in making the award,

Christian Wiman Christian Wiman is an American poet and editor born in 1966 and raised in the small west Texas town of Snyder. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College in Vi ...

noted, "He’s a great poet whose work is just beginning to get the wide audience it deserves."

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 San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

in 1971. He taught at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. In 1982, he joined

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He is an art critic, and curated a photography exhibit of Jonathan Elderfield. His work appeared in ''

AGNI Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

'', ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'', and ''

Triquarterly ''TriQuarterly'' is a name shared by an American literary magazine and a series of books, both operating under the aegis of Northwestern University Press. The journal is published twice a year and features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, liter ...

''. He lives in San Francisco.

Awards

* 2012

for lifetime achievement. * 2008

California Book Award The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone. Ac ...

. Gold medal for ''Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems''. * 1998–2001 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund grant.Award and dates verified using the searchable database at * 1996

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award. Book prize for ''This Strange Joy: Selected Poems of Sandro Penna''. * 1985

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. * Ingram Merrill Fellowship. *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

grant.

Works

Poetry collections

* ''The Complaints''. Carnegie Mellon University Press; February 15, 2019 * ''The Man on the Water''. MadHat Press; December 15, 2016 * * * * * * * * * * * ''Country of Survivors: Poems''. Eric B. Rasmussen Publishing. 1974.

Journal contributions

* * * * * * *

Translations

* * * *

Essays

* ''Fat: New and Uncollected Prose''. Carnegie Mellon University Press; November 7, 2020 *''City Dog'', Northwestern University Press, 2009. * * * * *

Anthologies

* *

References

Online poetry

* * Links to several poems and articles by Di Piero. {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Piero, W. S. 1945 births Living people American male poets Writers from Philadelphia Greek–English translators Italian–English translators 20th-century American poets 20th-century American translators 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American poets 21st-century American translators 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American essayists American male essayists Saint Joseph's University alumni San Francisco State University alumni Louisiana State University faculty Northwestern University faculty Stanford University faculty