✏️🛠️ How Narratively Contributor Laurie Gwen Shapiro Landed Her First Nonfiction Book Deal

A Q&A with the author of a hit book about an extraordinary adventure to Antarctica.

Cover art from The Stowaway courtesy Simon & Schuster

If you’re a historian, Antarctica buff or you simply love a good adventure story, you’ve likely heard of Narratively contributor Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s acclaimed historical nonfiction book, The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica. Released by Simon & Schuster in 2018, Shapiro’s book earned rave reviews everywhere from The New York Times to USA Today. With extraordinary detail, Shapiro traces the journey of Billy Gawronski, a scrappy first-generation youngster from New York, as he sneaks aboard one of the first U.S. expeditions to Antarctica.

What you may not know is that Shapiro — who has worn a multitude of complementary hats, from novelist to documentary filmmaker to nonfiction writer — is nothing like the stuffy, unapproachable academic you might imagine writing such a painstakingly researched book. Charming and quietly exuberant, Shapiro is a self-proclaimed “chronic eavesdropper” who speaks as though she…