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W. S. Di Piero

b. 1945

Poet, essayist, translator, and educator

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About W. S. Di Piero

Born 1945. W. S. Di Piero is an American translator, academic, university teacher, literary scholar, poet and essayist.

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 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." In 1982, he joined Stanford University, where he is professor emeritus of English and on faculty in the prestigious Stegner Poetry Workshop . 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.

Awards 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. 2008 California Book Award. Gold medal for Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems. 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

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

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Employers
Stanford University
Awards
Guggenheim Fellowship; Berlin Prize; Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Also known as
William S. Di Piero, Simone Di Piero, William Simone Di Piero

People in W. S. Di Piero's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped W. S. Di Piero's

Frequently asked questions

Who is W. S. Di Piero?

Poet, essayist, translator, and educator

When was W. S. Di Piero born?

W. S. Di Piero was born on 3 December 1945 in South Philadelphia.

What is W. S. Di Piero's occupation?

W. S. Di Piero is a translator, academic, university teacher, literary scholar, poet and essayist.

What nationality is W. S. Di Piero?

W. S. Di Piero is American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: W. S. Di Piero

· Wikidata: Q15442147

· DBpedia: W. S. Di Piero

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). W. S. Di Piero. https://biography.guide/w-s-di-piero/

MLA: "W. S. Di Piero." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/w-s-di-piero/.

Chicago: "W. S. Di Piero." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/w-s-di-piero/.

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