Again, thanks for your interest in my work. A bit more about me (and more in the Press Kit): I grew up on a small dairy farm in Minnesota. Had no idea I'd become a writer one day, but I enjoyed history and English classes in high school–along with lots of outdoor and team sports. Too skinny for football, good at basketball, great glove at third base but couldn't hit a curveball to save my life.
Off to college at Saint Cloud State University (Minnesota), and then the University in Minneapolis, as an "undeclared major," but eventually decided upon English. I graduated with my B.A. in English in 1972 and headed to California where I eventually landed in the Stanford Writing Program. It was there that I focused on studying and writing short stories–a great place to start for a fiction writer
My wife, Rosalie (from Minnesota), and I returned to the Midwest in 1976, where I took over my father's farm for a couple of years. I had this romantic idea that I could be a gentleman farmer/writer, but I had forgotten how much work farming was. I transitioned to college teaching at nearby Bemidji State University, where I taught writing and literature for twenty-four short years. I loved every day (well, almost every day) of teaching, but gradually my writing won out. Today I'm a full time writer, which allows me more time to travel, visit schools and libraries, and share what I've learned about writing–and teaching writing. Be sure to check out my "On Writing" blog if you're an aspiring fiction writer.
Will Weaver
Will Weaver writes fiction for adults and young adults. He was born in northern Minnesota in 1950 and grew up on a dairy farm. His novels and short stories have earned the praises of reviewers from coast-to-coast for their unflinching realism. The New York Times Book Review called A Gravestone Made of Wheat, "a graceful collection, one that views America's heartland with a candid but charitable eye."
Red Earth, White Earth, Mr. Weaver's debut novel, was published in 1986 by Simon & Schuster and was produced as a CBS television movie in 1989. A Gravestone Made of Wheat & Other Stories (Simon & Schuster, 1989) won many awards, including the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction. Several of the stories were performed on National Public Radio. The title story was produced as the independent feature film Sweet Land starring Ned Beatty. In October, 2006, Sweet Land earned rave reviews in its national theater release. "A triumph...a movie of extraordinary tenderness" (Entertainment Weekly, 10/18/06). In February, 2007, Sweet Land won the independent film industry's Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and is now out on DVD.
Will Weaver has also written several successful novels for young adults. Each novel in his Billy Baggs series (Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball; HarperCollins, 1993/95/98) was honored as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. His novel Memory Boy (2001) is used widely in schools across the United States. Following Claws (2001), his novel Full Service (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005) won starred reviews and was also listed as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Defect, winner of the 2008 Minnesota Book Award, is the story of a young man with a miraculous birth abnormality. Saturday Night Dirt, a novel focused on stock car racing, was released in April, 2008. A sequel, Super Stock Rookie, was in April of 2009. A third in the trilogy, Checkered Flag Cheater, is due out in early 2010. A sequel to Memory Boy should be out in late 2010.
Formerly an English professor at Bemidji State University, Mr. Weaver lives in Northern Minnesota, a region he writes from and loves. He is an avid outdoorsman, and enjoys hunting, fishing, canoeing and hiking with his family and friends.
© 2010 Will Weaver. Will Weaver Books. All Rights Reserved.
Maintained by Design Angler.
Photography courtesy of John Bauer.
