Lynn Mayson Shapiro was born in Washington D.C., and raised in Cambridge, MA. She attended Smith College and graduated from NYU with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. She choreographed for her own company, The Lynn Shapiro Dance Company, and won several awards for her work, among them fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. In recent years, Ms. Shapiro concentrated on writing. Her poem, Sloan Kettering, won The Pushcart Prize in 2008. Other poems have appeared in the publications, Rattle and Mudfish. A piece excerpted from her memoir entitled, Savage Love at Beth Israel, was published in the literary journal, Fifth Wednesday, and was nominated by board of editors for a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Shapiro died November 19, 2011 at Beth Israel Hospital, succumbing to complications from breast cancer.