BEMIDJI PIONEER NOVEMBER 18, 2023 WILL WEAVER'S NEW NOVEL IS A DEEPLY PERSONAL STORY By Dennis Doeden Will Weaver’s great aunt went to her grave…
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Power & Light (the novel)
Excerpt
My new novel is just out. Power & Light (October ’23) is first of a two book saga based on the generational arc of a Norwegian immigrant family in the upper Midwest. If you liked Sweet Land (film and story), Power & Light is for you.
A little about me. I live on the Mississippi River not far from its headwaters near Bemidji, Minnesota. My publishers include HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Farrar Straus and Giroux. I have two film adaptations and a third (maybe) in the works. I lead an outdoor and a literary life. Recently I was a fiction panelist for the National Book Awards, but I also boat, fish, hunt, and hike. If you’re a writer on your own path, poke around my site. There’s fiction and nonfiction for adults and young adults. If you enjoy literary conversation, take a look at my blog, “In The Write” which has a lot of tips. Other info: Sweet Land, the award-winning indie film adaptation of my short story “A Gravestone Made of Wheat” is now streaming on Amazon Prime. It has a great cast– Alan Cumming, Alex Kingston, Ned Beatty and Tim Guinee–and is directed by Ali Selim.
Also check out my conversation with KAXE Public Radio with host Tammy Bowbrosky on “What We’re Reading.” We had a great chat about Power & Light.
"Weaver writes with both lyrical excitement and gritty power." (San Francisco Chronicle) "Weaver's characters are rendered in the manner of Steinbeck's people... [with] compassion and values rarely found in today's literature." (Chicago Sun-Times) "Makes you feel good about the state of American fiction." (Cleveland Plain Dealer) "Views America's heartland with a candid but charitable eye..." (The New Yorker) "Weaver captures the flow of family cycles and lifestyles in a very American landscape." (Publishers Weekly) "Weaver not only knows these characters, he likes them... yet he never allows his affinity to become sentimental." (Library Journal)
Books
My World. Real and imagined. In Writing
Power & Light
In 1906 an emigrant family from Norway arrives in the Midwest. The Haugens dream of owning land and "moving up in the world." Tragedy plus a crime against them by a powerful local man threatens to destroy the family.
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Memory Boy
The post-apocalyptic future is near, and the Newell family escape to the safety of their summer cabin to survive in the new world.
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Sweet Land
A collection of hand-picked stories that offer a vivid portrait of swirling, intergenerational changes in the Midwest.
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Full Service
In the summer of '65, high school sophomore-to-be Paul lands a job outside his communal farm, and begins to see the real nature of adults.
Read moreIn the Write
If you write and like books, this blog's for you.
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