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 written several successful novels for young adults. Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball (HarperCollins, 1993/95/98) were honored as Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Memory Boy (2001) is used widely in schools across the United States. Following Claws (2001), and one of Weaver’s person favorites, 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. His Motornovel Series focused on dirt track stock car racing includes Saturday Night Dirt (2008), Super Stock Rookie (2009), and Checkered Flag Cheater (2010).