Karl Jay Shapiro (November 10, 1913-May 14, 2000) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning United States poet, famous for his poetry written in the Pacific Theater while he served there during World War II. His collection V-Letter and Other Poems, written while Shapiro was stationed in New Guinea, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945, while Shapiro was still in the military. His other works include Person, Place and Thing (1942), To Abolish Children (1968), and The Old Horsefly (1993).
He died in New York City in 2000.