Bruce Weigl

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Bruce Weigl (born January 27, 1949) is an American poet known for writing about the Vietnam War and its lasting effects on people in the United States and Vietnam. He grew up in Lorain, Ohio, and joined the U.S. Army after turning 18. He served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 and received the Bronze Star.

After his military service, Weigl earned a BA from Oberlin College, an MA from the University of New Hampshire, and a PhD from the University of Utah. He taught at several colleges and universities, including Lorain County Community College, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Old Dominion University, and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). He became a distinguished professor at Lorain County Community College in 2000. He also wrote a memoir, The Circle of Hanh, published in 1999.

Weigl’s poetry is strongly influenced by his experiences in the Army and in Vietnam. He also worked with Thanh T. Nguyen to translate poems by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers, traveling to Hanoi with the Vietnamese Writers Association to help with translations. His work appears in many anthologies, including American Alphabets.

Awards and honors include the American Academy of Poets prize (1979), two Pushcart Prizes, the Patterson Poetry Prize, the Yaddo Foundation Fellowship, and the Bread Loaf Poetry Fellowship (1981). He received an NEA grant (1988), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Song of Napalm, won the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 2006, and received the Robert Creeley Award in 2011. He was the 2003 Poetry Panel Chair for the National Book Award, and his book The Abundance of Nothing was a Pulitzer finalist in 2013.

Weigl adopted Vietnamese daughter Hạnh Nguyễn Weigl in 1996 and has worked to preserve Vietnamese culture in her life, encouraging her to speak Vietnamese and stay connected to Vietnam.

Critics praise his ability to blend the Midwest landscape with the horrors of war. The Monkey Wars is especially acclaimed. In 2014 he appeared in the documentary Poetry of Witness.