Gordon A. Weaver (February 2, 1937 – April 2, 2021) was an American novelist and

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer.

Life and career

Weaver was born in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

in February 1937, the fifth of the five children of Noble Rodell Weaver and Inez Katherine Nelson. His family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1941. He graduated from Wauwatosa High School in 1955. After three years service in the United States Army (1955–1958), he graduated from the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

in 1961, from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

with an MA in 1962, and from the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

with a Ph.D. in 1970. He taught at

Siena College Siena College is an American private Franciscan college in Loudonville, New York. Siena was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937. The college was named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher. St ...

1963-1965,

Marietta College Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors across the arts, sciences, and engineering, as well as Physician Assistant, Psychology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, an ...

1965-1968,

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

1970–1975,

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

1975–1995,

Vermont College Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in low-residency and residential programs. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, ...

1983-1989, and

1996–2000. He was founding editor of the ''Mississippi Review'', fiction editor of ''Cimarron Review'' from 1975 to 1986, managing editor of the AWP ( Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Award Series for Short Fiction from 1977 to 1979, and general editor of the Twayne Studies in Short Fiction (Twayne Publishers, Boston/New York) from 1986 to 1997. More than a hundred of his stories have appeared in a wide variety of literary magazines, including ''Agni'', ''Antioch Review'', ''Carolina Quarterly'', ''Confrontation'', ''Georgia Review'', ''Iowa Review'', ''The Literary Review'', ''New Letters'', ''Ploughshares'', and ''Southwest Review''. His novel ''Count a Lonely Cadence'', was adapted for the movie ''

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

'', starring

Charlie Sheen Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Platoon'' (1986), ''Wall Street'' (1987), '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' The Rookie'' (1990), ''The Thr ...

. Weaver was the father of three daughters. He retired to the Milwaukee area in the 1990s and died in April 2021. His papers are held at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

Awards

* St. Lawrence Award for Fiction (1973) * Quarterly West Fiction Prize (1978) * O. Henry First Prize (1978)rear flap of ''Circling Byzantium'' *

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

in 1985 and 1997 *

The Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...

1980 for "Hog's Heart" *

National Endowment of the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

fellowships in 1974 and 1989 * 1979

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

* Sherwood Anderson Award (1982) * Quarterly West Novella Prize (1984) * 2002 James C. McCormick Fellowship in Fiction (Christopher Isherwood Foundation). * Andrew Lytle Fiction Prize (2007)

Works

Novels

* * * *

Short Stories

* * * * * * * * * *

Poetry

Non-fiction

Adaptations

* The movie ''

'' was based on Weaver's novel ''Count a Lonely Cadence''.

References

External links

"Interview", ''Pif magazine''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Gordon 1937 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American male novelists American male short story writers Novelists from Mississippi Novelists from Oklahoma Novelists from Wisconsin O. Henry Award winners Oklahoma State University faculty University of Denver alumni University of Illinois alumni University of Southern Mississippi faculty University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty People from Moline, Illinois