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."

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. In 1982, he joined Stanford University. He is an Art Critic, and curated a photography exhibit of Jonathan Elderfield.

His work appeared in AGNI, Ploughshares, and Triquarterly.

He lives in San Francisco.

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.

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.

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.

Awards

• 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.
• 2008 California Book Award. Gold medal for Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems.
• 1998 - 2001 Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Fund grant.
• 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.

Works

Essays

• City Dog, Northwestern University Press, 2009.

Further reading

• Not available online.
• 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

• Links to several poems and articles by Di Piero.