Afaa Michael Weaver, Playwright And Poet To Host a Wilderness House Lunch

Wilderness House Literary Retreat continues its tradition by presenting “Lunch with Afaa Michael Weaver.” Wilderness House is a 7-bedroom cabin built in the early 20th century as a sportsman retreat by a large wealthy family. Wilderness House has hosted such notables as poet Robert Creeley, poet and biographer Lois Ames, mystery writer Hallie Ephron and fiction editor C. Michael Curtis. Wilderness House is a cooperative venture between the New England Forestry Foundation and the Littleton Rotary Club.

Littleton MA (PRWEB) November 2, 2005 -- Wilderness House Literary Retreat continues its tradition by presenting

“Lunch with Afaa Michael Weaver”

A casual chat over lunch with playwright and poet Afaa Michael Weaver. Wilderness House is an exceptional location in which to talk about reading, writing and life over lunch. Come, listen, chat and feast.

Afaa Michael Weaver, formerly known as Michael S. Weaver, was born in 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, to working class parents. He attended public schools and graduated as a National Merit finalist at the age of sixteen. After two years at the University of Maryland, he entered the world of factory life alongside his father and uncles and remained a factory worker for fifteen years. These years were a literary apprenticeship during which he wrote and published poetry, short fiction, and freelance journalism. During that time he also started 7th Son Press and Blind Alleys, a literary journal.

His first book of poetry, Water Song, was published in 1985 as part of the Callaloo series. He received a NEA fellowship for poetry six months after signing the contract for the collections and left factory life to accept admission into Brown University’s graduate writing program on a full university fellowship, where he completed the M.A. with a focus on theater and playwriting. Concurrently, he completed his B.A. in Literature in English through Excelsior College.

Tess Onwueme, the Nigerian playwright, gave him the Ibo name "Afaa," meaning "oracle," while Dr. Perng Ching-hsi, of National Taiwan University has given him the Chinese name "Wei Yafeng," derived from "Wei" for flourishing or blossoming, and "Yafeng," the title of a section of poems from the Book of Songs, the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry.

Since Water Song, Weaver has published eight more collections of poetry, including Multitudes, Sandy Point, and The Ten Lights of God, all of which appeared in 2000. His full length play Rosa was produced in 1993 at Venture Theater in Philadelphia under a small-Equity contract. His short fiction appears in Gloria Naylor’s Children of the Night and in Maria Gillan’s Identity Lessons.

Weaver has been a Pew fellow in poetry and taught in National Taiwan University and Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar. At Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, he is the Alumnae Professor of English and director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center. In addition, he is Chairman of the Simmons International Chinese Poetry Conference.

Afaa Michael Weaver (born Michael S. Weaver) is the author of nine collections of poetry, several plays, and some short fiction. He has received NEA, Pew, and Pennsylvania Arts Council fellowships. In 2002 he taught at National Taiwan University as a Fulbright fellow. In playwriting Afaa has received the PDI Award from ETA Theater in Chicago. In April 2005 in Beijing he received a gold friendship medal from the Chinese Writers Association. He teaches at Simmons College where he is also director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center and chairman of the Simmons International Chinese Poetry Conference. Two of his latest collections of poetry are Multitudes (Sarabande 2000) and The Ten Lights of God.

November 19th from 10 A.M. till 2 P.M.

$25 per person, limited to 20 participants.

The event will take place in Wilderness House, 32 Foster Street, Littleton MA

History – Wilderness House is a 7-bedroom cabin built in the early 20th century as a sportsman retreat by a large wealthy family. Situated deep within several hundred acres of forest, Wilderness House sits on the second highest point in Littleton MA with an unobstructed view of the Wapack Range and, on a clear day, Mt. Monadnock some 40 miles distant in New Hampshire. A series of trails lead from the cabin atop Wilderness Hill through this primitive preserve to a private dock nestled in a secluded corner of Littleton’s Long Lake.

Wilderness House has hosted such notables as poet Robert Creeley, poet and biographer Lois Ames, mystery writer Hallie Ephron and fiction editor C. Michael Curtis.

Wilderness House will offer a series of intense literary workshops lead by an acknowledged literary master of their genre. Each month a different literary genre will be presented. We may have poets one month, mystery writers the next followed by playwrights after that. The goal of the Wilderness House Literary Retreat is to embrace the literary goals of each participant in such a way as to empower each writer to become better than when they arrived and to inspire each participant with a new sense of what can be.

See www.wildernesshouse.org for more information and background

Wilderness House is accessible by car from Rt. 2 and Rt. 495 as well as commuter rail (the Fitchburg line) at the Littleton/495 station. Wilderness House is an easy mile walk from the station.

Wilderness House is a cooperative venture between the New England Forestry Foundation and the Littleton Rotary Club.

Wilderness House Inc.

145 Foster Street, Littleton MA 01460

Contacts Steve Glines (978-952-6340) info@wildernesshouse.org

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