Bruce Weigl

Bruce Weigl was born in Lorain, Ohio, in 1949. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at age eighteen and served in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. After returning to the United States, he received a BA from Oberlin College, an MA from the University of New Hampshire, and a PhD from the University of Utah.

Weigl published his first book of poetry, A Romance (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979), while teaching at Lorain County Community College in Ohio. He has gone on to publish over a dozen poetry collections, including The Abundance of Nothing (Triquarterly Books, 2012), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Archaeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems (Grove Press, 1999); Song of Napalm (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994); and Sweet Lorain (Triquarterly Books, 1996).

Much of Weigl’s work is inspired by his experiences of the Vietnam War. In an interview with Blast Furnace Press, he says, “I wouldn’t have been a writer without the War because it forced me to go inward. And for some reason when I did, I found these stories.”

Weigl is also the author of The Circle of Hanh: A Memoir (Grove Press, 2000). He has received two Pushcart Prizes, a Patterson Poetry Prize, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught at the University of Arkansas, Old Dominion University, and Pennsylvania State University, and he currently teaches at Lorain County Community College. He lives in Lorain, Ohio.