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Stacy Schiff          

Pulitzer Prize-winning Author, "Cleopatra" & "The Witches"

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff has said to set the "gold standard for all biographers." Her acclaimed works include Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), which won the Pulitzer Prize, Saint-Exupéry, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize and other prestigious awards.

In her acclaimed, bestselling book, Cleopatra: A Life, Schiff brings to life one of the most intriguing women in history. Not only was Cleopatra the richest woman in the world, she was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though she died at 39, she lived an epic life. She waged a brutal civil war, dispensed with her enemies, and- in a male-dominated world- built an empire with intelligence and skill. She also spoke nine languages and was the single mother of four children.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Schiff "reanimates Cleopatra as a living, breathing woman: utterly extraordinary, to be sure, but recognizably human." Named to nearly all the best books of year lists, including the ten best for the New York Times and National Public Radio, Cleopatra opens a whole new dialogue about women, leadership and power.

Schiff has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and was a Director's Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She was awarded a 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Schiff has written for The New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times, where she has also been a guest columnist.

Speech Topics


Leadership Lessons From Cleopatra

Cleopatra ruled an empire, every day facing issues of major military, economic, and judicial importance. Politics and negotiations were often life or death decisions. The richest and most powerful woman in the world, she was vulnerable both to Rome and to scheming blood relatives, whom she conveniently eliminated.

While today we generally refrain from poisoning enemies when we face competition, there are many lessons to be learned from such a brilliant and skilled leader. Cleopatra knew how to cultivate loyalty, consolidate power, and forge strategic alliances, as well as the importance of both good PR and impressive pageantry.

As Schiff makes clear, the politics and maneuvering of the ancient world are little different from ours today.

Her talks make for a fascinating examination of a wide range of issues and topics, including leadership, power, women and leadership, diplomacy and the enduring foibles of human nature.

SHE ALSO SPEAKS ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

  • Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

  • Benjamin Franklin in France

  • France and the American Revolution

  • Getting A Life: The Writing of Biography

News


Pulitzer Prize-Winner Stacy Schiff to Receive Honorary Degree from ...
Mar 15, 2013 ... (WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Adams, Mass., native Stacy Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize- winning author and columnist and member of the graduating ...
Pulitzer Prize-Winner Stacy Schiff to Receive Honorary Degree from ...
Mar 15, 2013 ... (WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Adams, Mass., native Stacy Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize- winning author and columnist and member of the graduating ...
Pulitzer Prize-Winner Stacy Schiff to Receive Honorary Degree from ...
Mar 15, 2013 ... (WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Adams, Mass., native Stacy Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize- winning author and columnist and member of the graduating ...
Stacy Schiff Wins 2014 BIO Award | Biographers International ...
Jan 21, 2014 ... Stacy Schiff is the winner of the fifth annual BIO Award. ... She is a remarkably generous writer whose devotion to her art and craft extends ...

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