About the Author​​​

Michael Shapiro writes about music, travel, and books for U.S. newspapers and magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, American Way and the Washington Post. In 2017, Shapiro delivered a Sonoma County TEDx talk entitled, “The Space Between,” about how global travel can foster understanding. He’s won awards for his environmental writing (Explore Canada), his deadline news reporting and music coverage (California Newspaper Publishers Association), and his travel features (Lowell Thomas and Travel Classics). Shapiro’s 2004 book, A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration, won a Foreword Book of the Year award and was a finalist in the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Read more about Michael Shapiro:  www.michaelshapiro.net

The Creative Spark: How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their inner fire and followed their dreams

Interviews with biographies of wildly creative people. 

Shapiro’s finely tuned, informed and intimate interviews strike to the heart of the matter.
—Tim Cahill, author of Hold the Enlightenment

Michael Shapiro is a genius at doing interviews, not just writing them but getting all of the famous people to talk to him. 
—Elaine Petrocelli, owner, Book Passage

Questions are knowledgeable, probing, thoughtful. … The artists’ discussions are organic and sometimes amusing, and their inclusion is guided by Shapiro’s admiration of his subjects.
—Foreword Reviews

Michael Shapiro has interviewed some of our brightest creative luminaries: authors, musicians, chefs, explorers and other visionaries. They speak about what drives them, what helps them to see the world in fresh ways, and what inspires them turn their visions into art. Chapters start with a short biography of the creative person being profiled, then segue into Q+A.

Unexpected revelations pop up in every chapter. Amy Tan discusses how she discovered truth through fiction; Francis Ford Coppola reflects that “the things you do when you’re young that get you fired are the same things that later get you lifetime achievement awards.” And Melissa Etheridge talks about how she channels her passion into music.

These provocative conversations serve as a gateway for each one of us to chart our own creative paths, enrich our lives, and bring our true selves into the world. The Creative Spark stands as a testament to human achievement, showing how creativity illuminates our world and lives in each and every one of us, just waiting to break out.

Among the 32 people interviewed and profiled in The Creative Spark:

Smokey Robinson • Barbara Kingsolver • Francis Ford Coppola • Jane Goodall • Amy Tan • David Sedaris • Graham Nash • Pico Iyer • Joan Rivers • Merle Haggard • Lucinda Williams • Frances Mayes • Judy Collins • Melissa Etheridge • Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson • Lyle Lovett • Robert Earl Keen • Dave Alvin • Jerry Garcia Band keyboardist Melvin Seals • Phil Cousineau • Godmother of soul Sharon Jones • Richard Thompson • Oral historian Studs Terkel • Ukulele wizard Jake Shimabukuro • Irish author Dervla Murphy • Juan José Cuevas