Michael Shapiro - The Creative Spark: How writers, musicians, chefs, and other artists found their voice and followed their dreams

Praise for Michael Shapiros previous collection of interviews, A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration

Illuminating, entertaining, and insightful.

Chicago Tribune

Shapiro [has] done his homework, seeming to know the books as well as their authors do. He elicits philosophies of travel (Jan Morris says, Grin like a dog and run about the city) as well as homely advice (Tim Cahill: Never go shark diving with a guy that's only got one arm).

Washington Post

Hearing some of the great travel writers talk about their craft is certainly instructive for readers and writers alike. Most enjoyable are [Shapiros] interviews with some of the standard-bearers: Arthur Frommer, Eric Newby, Peter Matthiessen and Jan Morris.

The New York Times Book Review

Big-minded, big-hearted, progressive and compassionate.

San Francisco Chronicle

I enjoyed A Sense of Place down to the last drop. This is a wonderful book, full of literary and experiential allusions, a fascinating read.

Keith Bellows, former editor, National Geographic Traveler

Ive never thought of us so-called travel writers as forming a comradeship, but in this innovative book, Shapiro brings our motley crew into a single focus by surveying eighteen of us, as writers and as people, through a single pair of perceptive, generous, and imaginative eyes.

Jan Morris, author of Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere

Shapiros descriptions of each writer are miniature masterpieces, I felt, every one, in part because each is so different. He evokes the very special and unique atmosphere of Isabel Allende showering her kindness on everyone, Tim Cahill and his open heart, Jan Morris with her wry compassion, Eric and Wanda Newby twinkling together.

Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road

Travel writer is much too claustrophobic a label to hang on some of the finest nonfiction writers of our generation, and Michael Shapiro coaxes out fascinating insights into their journeys, their craft and the beloved places they leave behind.

John Flinn, former travel editor, San Francisco Chronicle

Hooray for Michael Shapiro, for bringing us these sweet insightful visits with the great creators of contemporary travel literature. These are the writers who gave so many of us our longing for the road, our passion for place, who informed our own wanderings. I always wondered about their lives, and it took Michael Shapiro to track them down, get them talking, and share with us their perspectives on our world.

Lynn Ferrin, former travel editor, Via magazine

Whether getting up at 4 a.m. to photograph the sunrise over Jerusalem, or prowling Waikiki Beachs Halloween madness, Michael Shapiro goes beyond the ordinary in his travelsand his writing. He brings a passion to his topics, digging beyond the surface to find deeper meanings and connections, but always with a sense of fun. And in the end, he and his readers are wiser for the effort.

Larry Bleiberg, former travel editor, Dallas Morning News

A Sense of Place won a bronze medal in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year awards and was a finalist for the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

A Selection of Travelers Tales Books from Solas House

Travel Literature

The Best Travel Writing, Soul of a Great Traveler, Deer Hunting in Paris, Fire Never Dies, Ghost Dance in Berlin, Guidebook Experiment, Kin to the Wind, Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, Last Trout in Venice, Marco Polo Didnt Go There, Rivers Ran East, Royal Road to Romance, A Sense of Place, Shopping for Buddhas, Soul of Place, Storm, Sword of Heaven, Take Me With You, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Way of Wanderlust, Wings, Coast to Coast, Mother Tongue, Baboons for Lunch, Strange Tales of World Travel, The Girl Who Said No

Womens Travel

100 Places Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places in Greece Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places in the USA Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places in Cuba Every Woman Should Go, 50 Places in Rome, Florence, & Venice Every Woman Should Go, Best Womens Travel Writing, Gutsy Women, Mothers World, Safety and Security for Women Who Travel, Wild with Child, Womans Asia, Womans Europe, Womans Path, Womans World, Womans World Again, Women in the Wild

Body & Soul

Food, How to Eat Around the World, A Mile in Her Boots, Pilgrimage, Road Within

Country and Regional Guides

30 Days in Italy, 30 Days in the South Pacific, America, Antarctica, Australia, Brazil, Central America, China, Cuba, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Spain, Thailand, Tibet, Turkey; Alaska, American Southwest, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Middle East, Paris, Prague, Provence, San Francisco, South Pacific, Tuscany

Special Interest

Danger!, Gift of Birds, Gift of Rivers, Gift of Travel, How to Shit Around the World, Hyenas Laughed at Me, Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana, More Sand in My Bra, Mousejunkies!, Not So Funny When It Happened, Sand in My Bra, Testosterone Planet, Theres No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled, Thong Also Rises, What Color Is Your Jockstrap?, Wake Up and Smell the Shit, The World Is a Kitchen, Writing Away, China Option, La Dolce Vita University

Copyright 2019 Michael Shapiro. All rights reserved.

Travelers Tales and Solas House are trademarks of Solas House, Inc., Palo Alto, California. travelerstales.com | solashouse.com

Art Direction: Kimberly Nelson

Cover Design: Kimberly Nelson

Cover Art: Alex Brady

Interior Design and Page Layout: Howie Severson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

978-1-60952-176-9 (paperback)

978-1-60952-177-6 (ebook)

978-1-60952-178-3 (hard cover)

First Edition

Printed in the United States

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my mother, Phyllis Shapiro, who encouraged me to be curious and creative from my earliest days, and for my wife, Jacqueline Yau, my teammate through life

Life isnt about finding yourself or finding anything. Life is about creating yourself and creating things.

Bob Dylan

Table of Contents

introduction

Emerging from the Chrysalis

S omething magical happened as I completed this book. One evening just before sunset I was in our backyard watering the planter boxes. On a stem of parsley I noticed a startling pattern of color, concentric rings of orange and black dots. Looking closer I saw the segments of a swallowtail caterpillar and could identify its tiny feet. For the next few days the caterpillar chomped on the parsley plant, absorbing energy for the next stage of its life. I placed a stick in the pot, at an angle to give the caterpillar a place to hang its chrysalis.

The caterpillars appearance felt like a message from the universe. For many months Id been working on transforming interviews Id conducted with some of the worlds most creative people into a coherent set of chapters. Id distilled the essence of these interviews into a tonic of ideas about the creative process. And Id written biographical introductions that sought to put each persons life in perspective and offer insights about the sources of his or her art.