Shapiro, NancyKay

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: Attended Mount Holyoke College.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, St. Martin's Press, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Works with a pharmaceutical advertising agency as a copywriter.

WRITINGS:

What Love Means to You People (novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her first published novel, What Love Means to You People, NancyKay Shapiro tells the story of Jim Glaser, a depressed New Yorker who is trying to overcome the death of his childhood friend, Zak, who also became Jim's life partner. Jim, who is in his forties, eventually meets Seth McKenna, an art student who is twenty years younger and has his own problems, including an abusive stepfather, a fundamentalist Christian mother, and a homophobic sister named Cassie. Seth, however, hides this past from the older and financially successful Jim and makes up an idyllic past and family. When Cassie arrives from their home in Nebraska, however, Seth becomes fearful that she will reveal a horrifying episode from his past. Joseph M. Eagan, writing in theLibrary Journal, called What Love Means to You People "a tense drama punctuated by unexpected plot twists and peopled with realistic characters." APublishers Weekly contributor noted that the author's "debut novel dramatically captures love's roulette of emotions." Whitney Scott concluded in Booklist that the novel is a "smoothly written gay melodrama."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Whitney Scott, review ofWhat Love Means to You People, p. 46.

Kirkus Reviews, Nov 15, 2005, review of What Love Means to You People, p. 1209.

Library Journal, February 1, 2006, Joseph M. Eagan, review of What Love Means to You People, p. 74.

Publishers Weekly, January 16, 2006, review of What Love Means to You People, p. 37.

ONLINE

NancyKay Shapiro Blog,http://www.nancykayshapiro.com(July 22, 2006).

Readerville,http://www.readerville.com/ (July 22, 2006), profile of Shapiro.