People like Will Weaver

Will Weaver (born William Weller; 1950 in Park Rapids, Minnesota), is an American author.

Weaver was raised on a dairy farm near Park Rapids, Minnesota, where his parents, who were of Scandinavian descent, farmed 150 acres. In Weaver's youth, he enjoyed fishing and participating in sports (he was the captain of his high school basketball team). At 16 years of age, he once finished second in a demolition derby. One of three children, he attended the local country school. Weaver attended Saint Cloud State University, 1968–69; University of Minnesota, B.A., 1972; Stanford University, M.A., 1979.

His debut was Red Earth, White Earth, about a native Minnesotan returning to his home town due to conflicts between white farmers and local Native Americans. It was made into a CBS-TV movie in 1989. His 1989 short story collection, A Gravestone Made of Wheat and Other Stories, won many awards, including the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction. The title story was produced in 2006 as the independent feature film Sweet Land, featuring Ned Beatty.