Speaker Bio

New York Times bestselling author B. A. Shapiro has made the historical art thriller her own with such novels as The Art Forger, The Muralist, and The Collector’s Apprentice. Based on her research of real-life figures in the art world such as the brilliant and eccentric collectors Albert Barnes and Henri Matisse, Shapiro creates layered fictional worlds of intrigue and suspense. From Paris in the 1920s and the world of Gertrude Stein’s salon to the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Shapiro’s novels are gripping thrillers with fascinating backdrops.

Shapiro earned a Ph.D. in sociology, specializing in deviant behavior—a good background for a novelist, she points out. She has taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She has visited over a hundred cities on book tours during her many years as a novelist and has spoken at libraries, women’s clubs, art museums, and colleges and universities from coast to coast.

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Speaking Topics

The Collector’s Apprentice: Shifting Identities, Art, Scandal and Revenge in 1920s Paris and Philadelphia

The Art Forger: A Novelist’s Take on the Unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist

The Muralist: Where Art, History, and Mystery Collide

Don’t Write What You Know, Write What You Want to Find Out (Without Your Research Showing)

Ripped from the Headlines: Turning News into Novels, History into Fiction

A Writer’s Rocky Road to the Bestseller List

Booking Info

B.A. Shapiro’s speaking engagements are handled by the Hachette Speakers Bureau, a division of Hachette Book Group and an accredited member of the International Association of Speakers Bureaus. Contact us to learn more.