Simmons professor receives poetry honor
Lee Hershey
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features
Last December, Professor Afaa Michael Weaver of the English Department was awarded the May Sarton Award by the New England Poetry Club. The award is "given intermittently to a poet whose work is an inspiration to other poets," as the NEPC Web site describes. Apparently for Weaver, the award came as a surprise. "I didn't even know I was being considered," he said.
The award was shared with Fred Marcant of Suffolk University.
The Sarton Award is a prestigious award, including listing past winners who Weaver described as "stellar."
"What's really great," he added, "is that your peers recognize your contribution to their lives as poets."
Weaver has been writing since he was a child. He recalls an assignment in the sixth grade when he wrote an autobiography.
"Well, a few page," he said. "I was only 12 years old."
Originally from Baltimore, MD, Weaver attended the University of Maryland and then immediately began to work in factories in the Baltimore area for fifteen years, while freelancing as a journalist for the Baltimore Sunpapers. Weaver quit his job at the factories to finish his bachelor's and obtain his master's in creative writing at the same time (attending Excelsior College while also going to Brown University).
Weaver began teaching after he graduated from Brown. He has taught at Essex County College, New York University, The City University of New York, and Rutgers-Camden. He had received tenure at Rutgers University in 1995, but in 1996 moved to Melrose while on sabbatical from the university and met with members of the English department at Simmons. In 1997, he was offered a position as a visiting professor at Simmons, and during the spring semester, he accepted the position of Alumnae Chair in English which he still holds.
"I came here primarily to teach creative writing courses in poetry and fiction," Weaver says, "but also literature courses in poetry and drama/theater."
His involvement in writing extends from poetry to play-writing, journalism and short fiction. Professor Weaver has ten poetry collections; his most recent was The Plum Flower Dance in 2007. His fiction is featured in two anthologies, and he has written 20 plays, winning the PDI Award from the ETA Creative Arts Foundation in Chicago for Elvira and the Lost Prince in 1993.
The award was shared with Fred Marcant of Suffolk University.
The Sarton Award is a prestigious award, including listing past winners who Weaver described as "stellar."
"What's really great," he added, "is that your peers recognize your contribution to their lives as poets."
Weaver has been writing since he was a child. He recalls an assignment in the sixth grade when he wrote an autobiography.
"Well, a few page," he said. "I was only 12 years old."
Originally from Baltimore, MD, Weaver attended the University of Maryland and then immediately began to work in factories in the Baltimore area for fifteen years, while freelancing as a journalist for the Baltimore Sunpapers. Weaver quit his job at the factories to finish his bachelor's and obtain his master's in creative writing at the same time (attending Excelsior College while also going to Brown University).
Weaver began teaching after he graduated from Brown. He has taught at Essex County College, New York University, The City University of New York, and Rutgers-Camden. He had received tenure at Rutgers University in 1995, but in 1996 moved to Melrose while on sabbatical from the university and met with members of the English department at Simmons. In 1997, he was offered a position as a visiting professor at Simmons, and during the spring semester, he accepted the position of Alumnae Chair in English which he still holds.
"I came here primarily to teach creative writing courses in poetry and fiction," Weaver says, "but also literature courses in poetry and drama/theater."
His involvement in writing extends from poetry to play-writing, journalism and short fiction. Professor Weaver has ten poetry collections; his most recent was The Plum Flower Dance in 2007. His fiction is featured in two anthologies, and he has written 20 plays, winning the PDI Award from the ETA Creative Arts Foundation in Chicago for Elvira and the Lost Prince in 1993.
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