{{short description|American writer}} {{use mdy|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Afaa M. Weaver | image = Afaa Michael Weaver reading poetry.jpg | caption = Weaver reading poetry in 2013 | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1951}} | birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland | occupation = {{hlist|Poet|short-story writer|editor}} | known_for = | notable_works = | education = {{Unbulleted list|Excelsior University {{Small|(B.A.)}} |Brown University {{Small|(M.A.)}} }} }} '''Afaa Michael Weaver''' (born 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland), formerly known as '''Michael S. Weaver''', is an American poet, short-story writer, and editor. He is the author of numerous poetry collections, and his honors include a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Foundation, and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He served as the Director of the Writing Intensive at The Frost Place.<ref>{{cite web|title = Meet Afaa Michael Weaver, The Frost Place Writing Intensive Director|url = http://frostplace.org/portfolio/afaa-micheal-weaver/|website = The Frost Place|access-date = 2016-02-03|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160406185227/http://frostplace.org/portfolio/afaa-micheal-weaver/|archive-date = 2016-04-06|url-status = dead}}</ref>He has received the Wallace Stevens Award and is a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets https://poets.org/poet/afaa-michael-weaver
==Life== Born in Maryland, he studied two years at the University of Maryland. He started 7th Son Press and the literary journal ''Blind Alleys''. He graduated from Brown University on a fellowship, with an M.A, and Excelsior University with a B.A. He taught at National Taiwan University and Taipei National University of the Arts as a Fulbright Scholar, and was a faculty member at the Cave Canem Foundation's annual retreat. In addition, he was the first to be named an elder of the Cave Canem Foundation. He also studied Chinese language at the Taipei Language Institute in Taiwan.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://aalbc.com/authors/afaa.htm |title=Bio |publisher=aalbc.com |date= |accessdate=2021-02-03}}<//
Weaver is Professor Emeritus at Simmons University where he held the Alumnae Endowed Chair for twenty years. After retiring in 2017 he accepted a position as Guest Faculty in Sarah Lawrence's MFA Program. https://poets.org/poet/afaa-michael-weaver http://www.simmons.edu/znh/about/founder.php |archivedate=2010-05-27 }}</ref> He was Chairman of the Simmons International Chinese Poetry Conference.<ref name="auto"/> Tess Onwueme, the Nigerian playwright, gave him the Ibo name "Afaa", meaning "oracle", while Dr. Perng Ching-hsi has given him the Chinese name "Wei Yafeng".<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://poets.org/poet/afaa-michael-weaver|title=About Afaa Michael Weaver | Academy of American Poets|first=Academy of American|last=Poets|website=poets.org}}</ref>
His poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including ''Callaloo''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fcallaloo%2Fv022%2F22.4weaver.html |title=Project MUSE - Login |access-date=2021-04-01 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194216/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fcallaloo%2Fv022%2F22.4weaver.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Honors and awards== * 2023 Wallace Stevens Award<ref>{{cite news|title=Academy of American Poets Announces Recipients of 2023 American Poetry Prizes|url=https://poets.org/academy-american-poets-announces-recipients-2023-american-poets-prizes|accessdate=21 September 2023|website=Academy of American Poets.|date=19 September 2023}}</ref> * 2014 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award<ref>{{cite news|last=Rothman|first=Lily|title=Meet the Former Factory Worker Who Just Won a $100,000 Poetry Prize|url=https://time.com/22229/poet-afaa-michael-weaver/|access-date=13 March 2014|newspaper=Time|date=March 12, 2014}}</ref> * 2002 Fulbright Scholarship<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cies.org/schlr_directories/usdir01/Crea14.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100502075927/http://www.cies.org/schlr_directories/usdir01/Crea14.htm|url-status=dead|title=Fulbright Scholar Program > 2001 - 2002 U.S. Scholar Directory|archivedate=May 2, 2010}}</ref> * 1985 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship<ref name="auto1"/> * 1998 Pew Fellowships in the Arts
==Published works== '''Full-length poetry collections''' * [https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-fire-in-the-hills-afaa-m-weaver/18735123?ean=9781636280820 ''A Fire in the Hills''] (Pasadena: Red Hen Press, 2023) * [https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Boxing-Poetry-Michael-Weaver/dp/0822964589 ''Spirit Boxing''] (Pitt Poetry Series, 2017) * [https://www.amazon.com/City-Eternal-Spring-Poetry-Series/dp/0822963256 ''The City of Eternal Spring''](Pitt Poetry Series, 2014) * [http://centralsquarepress.com/weaver.html ''A Hard Summation''] (Central Square Press, 2014) * [https://www.amazon.com/Government-Nature-Pitt-Poetry/dp/0822962314/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415590321&sr=1-2 ''The Government of Nature''] (Pitt Poetry Series, 2013) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100620031628/http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=35884 ''The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005''] (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) * {{cite book| title=Multitudes| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UhuEjPi55IC&q=Afaa+M.+Weaver&pg=PA114| publisher=Sarabande Books| year=2000| isbn=978-1-889330-41-9 }} * {{cite book| title=The Ten Lights of God| publisher=Bucknell University Press | date=February 2000| isbn=978-0-8387-5434-4 }} * ''Timber and Prayer: The Indian Pond Poems'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995) * ''My Father’s Geography'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992) * {{cite book| title=Water Song | publisher=University Press of Virginia| year=1985 }} Callaloo series * {{cite book| title=Sandy Point| publisher=The Press of Appletree Alley | place=Lewisburg, Pennsylvania| others=Engravings Rosalyn Richards }}
'''Plays''' * ''Rosa'' was produced in 1993 at Venture Theater in Philadelphia
'''Anthologies edited''' *{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/thesehandsiknowa00weav| url-access=registration| page=[https://archive.org/details/thesehandsiknowa00weav/page/135 135]| quote=Afaa M. Weaver.| title=These hands I know: African-American writers on family| editor=Afaa Michael Weaver| publisher=Sarabande Books| year=2002| isbn=978-1-889330-72-3 }}
'''Anthology publications''' *{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0gDLbXHAYwC&q=Afaa+M.+Weaver&pg=PT61| chapter=My Father's Geography| title=The Oxford anthology of African-American poetry|editor1=Arnold Rampersad |editor2=Hilary Herbold| publisher=Oxford University Press US| year=2006| isbn=978-0-19-512563-4 }} *{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26VzZYQBSpYC&q=Afaa+M.+Weaver&pg=PA243| chapter=Eighteen| title=Teaching about Violence Against Women| editor=Mona Eliasson| publisher=Feminist Press| year=1999| isbn=978-1-55861-211-2 }} *{{cite book| title=Children of the night: the best short stories by Black writers, 1967 to the present| editor=Gloria Naylor| publisher=Little, Brown and Co.| year=1997| isbn=978-0-316-59923-8| url=https://archive.org/details/childrenofnight00glor}} *{{cite book| title=Identity lessons: contemporary writing about learning to be American|editor1=Maria M. Gillan |editor2=Jennifer Gillan| publisher=Penguin Books| year=1999| isbn=978-0-14-027167-6| url=https://archive.org/details/identitylessonsc00gill}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * [http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&Search_Arg=afaa+m.+weaver&Search_Code=GKEY^*&CNT=100&hist=1&type=quick Library of Congress Online Catalog > Afaa M. Weaver]
==External links== * Author Profile: {{cite news| url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/05/a_weaver_of_disparate_strands/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012092724/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/05/a_weaver_of_disparate_strands/| url-status=dead| archive-date=October 12, 2008| title=A weaver of disparate strands| author=Ellen Steinbaum| work=The Boston Globe | date=February 5, 2006 }} * [http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/32/weaver.html Audio: ''The Cortland Review'' > Issue 32, June 2006 > ''Zombie Dance/Tapping The Blood Root'' by Afaa M. Weaver] * [http://www.pshares.org/issues/article-detail.cfm?intArticleID=7535 Criticism: ''Ploughshares'' > Fall 2002 > A Review by Afaa M. Weaver of ''Leaving Saturn'' by Major Jackson]
Sarah Lawrence Faculty Profile. https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/faculty/weaver-afaa.html
Guggenheim Fellow Profile https://www.gf.org/fellows/afaa-m-weaver/
Hopkins Review Interview: https://hopkinsreview.com/features/in-conversation-with-afaa-m-weaver
Review of The Plum Flower Trilogy: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/convergence-personal-political-spiritual-poetry-afaa-michael-weavers-plum-flower-trilogy
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Afaa M.}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:American male poets Category:Writers from Baltimore Category:Poets from Maryland Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:Simmons University faculty Category:Excelsior College alumni Category:Brown University alumni Category:Pew Fellows in the Arts Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni Category:United States Army soldiers