The Creative Spark
How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their inner fire and followed their dreams
Who is the market?
Anyone who appreciates creativity or seeks to be creative
Fans or the musicians, writers and other creative people interviewed in the book
Anyone who loves music and/or literature and wants to know the stories behind some of the great works of our times
Self-improvers, seekers, and the intellectually curious
Artists and other creative types including writers, musicians, painters, chefs, scientists, iconoclasts
Those who are in transition
How do people become more creative?
The book is filled with examples of how people found ways to be more creative and how they shared their creativity with the world What sparked Amy Tan to write The Joy Luck Club or The Valley of Amazement? How did Lucinda Williams overcome her shyness and learn to command a stage? After The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, why did Francis Ford Coppola make The Outsiders? What does Frances Mayes love most about Tuscany? It’s all in The Creative Spark.
**Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Medal Winner** **Independent Publisher Book Awards finalist for A Sense of Place** **Winner of the Bedford Pace Grand Award and Lowell Thomas Award** Michael Shapiro is a heralded journalist known for the keen insight he brings to interviews. Working for leading newspapers (Washington Post, New York Times, and San Francisco Chronicle) and national magazines (National Geographic Traveler, American Way, Hemispheres), Shapiro has interviewed many of the most creative people of our time. He’s become known for his ability to forge personal connections with artists such as Smokey Robinson, Lucinda Williams, David Sedaris, Graham Nash, Melissa Etheridge, Amy Tan, and Lyle Lovett. These renowned innovators and many others share the secrets of their creative processes in The Creative Spark. Shapiro’s previous book, A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration (Travelers’ Tales) is a collection of interviews with the world’s top travel authors, including Bill Bryson, Pico Iyer, Jan Morris, Paul Theroux, Simon Winchester, Peter Matthiessen, and Frances Mayes. In 2017, Shapiro delivered a TEDx talk entitled “The Space Between” about how travel can narrow the gaps between people all over the globe and why that’s more important than ever. A native of New York, Shapiro graduated from U.C. Berkeley with high honors and now lives with his wife in Sonoma County, Calif. His National Geographic Traveler feature, about Jan Morris’ corner of Wales, won the Bedford Pace grand award. His story about sustainable seafood in Vancouver earned the 2016 Explore Canada Award of Excellence in the culinary category. He has contributed several in-depth interviews to The Sun, a literary magazine, including conversations with oral historian Studs Terkel and oceanographer Sylvia Earle. Both are in The Creative Spark. Shapiro has written about the Naadam festival in Mongolia for the Washington Post, tasted tequila in Jalisco for American Way, and spoken with Jane Goodall for O the Oprah Magazine. From 2011 to 2018, he wrote a weekly column about gambling for the San Francisco Chronicle and for four years had a column in the Chronicle’s travel section. He volunteers as a whitewater rafting guide and sea kayak trip leader for Environmental Traveling Companions, a San Francisco-based group that takes physically challenged people on outdoor adventures. In 2016, he co-led a river trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, rowing his wife and others through the river’s fiercest rapids, including Lava Falls.
