Eric Paul Shaffer
Eric Paul Shaffer is an American novelist and poet, who lives and works in Hawai‘i. A retired professor of English at Honolulu Community College,[1] he formerly taught at Maui Community College and the University of the Ryukyus on Okinawa.[2]
Early life
[edit]Shaffer is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he received a Ph.D. in American Literature in 1991.[3] Shaffer's dissertation was the first critical examination of the life and work of Lew Welch, a member of the San Francisco Renaissance and friend to Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, and Albert Saijo.
Career
[edit]His work has appeared in more than 650 national and international reviews, journals, and magazines, including Bamboo Ridge, the Chaminade Literary Review, the Chicago Review,[4] the Chiron Review, Slate, The Sun Magazine, and the North American Review,[5] as well as in the anthologies 100 Poets Against the War, The EcoPoetry Anthology, Jack London Is Dead: Contemporary Euro-American Poetry of Hawai‘i (And Some Stories), Crossing Lines, In the Trenches, Weatherings, and The Soul Unearthed.[6] He is the author of nine collections of poetry and one novel. Second Nature, a tenth volume of poems, is forthcoming from Coyote Arts in 2026.
Awards
[edit]Shaffer received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, Hawaii's highest literary honor, in 2002,[7] and the James Vaughan Award for Poetry in 2010.[8] He was a visiting poetry faculty member at the 23rd annual Jackson Hole Writers Conference. His poetry collection Lāhaina Noon received an Award for Excellence in the 2006 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Awards.[9] His poetry collection Even Further West received an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Awards.
Bibliography
[edit]- Kindling: Poems from Two Poets (Golden, CO: Longhand Press, 1988) (with James Taylor III)
- RattleSnake Rider (Black Hawk, CO: Longhand Press, 1990)
- How I Read Gertrude Stein by Lew Welch, edited and with an introduction by Eric Paul Shaffer (San Francisco: Grey Fox Press, 1996)
- Portable Planet: Poems (Chantilly, Virginia: Leaping Dog Press, 2000)
- Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen (Chantilly, Virginia: Leaping Dog Press, 2001)
- Lāhaina Noon: Nā Mele O Maui (San José, California: Leaping Dog Press, 2005)
- Burn & Learn: Memoirs of the Cenozoic Era: A Novel (Raleigh, North Carolina: Leaping Dog Press, 2009)
- A Million-Dollar Bill (West Hartford, Connecticut: 2016. 2nd edition, Albuquerque, New Mexico: Coyote Arts, 2024)
- Even Further West (Portland, Oregon: Unsolicited Press, 2018)
- Green Leaves: Selected & New Poems (Albuquerque, New Mexico: Coyote Arts, 2023)
- Free Speech: poem sequences (Albuquerque, New Mexico: Coyote Arts, 2025)
References
[edit]- ^ Thomas, Christine (January 4, 2010). "Book Review: Burn & Learn". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ Adams, Wanda (June 16, 2002). "Book is like a quick return to Japan, poet says". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ Sherwin, Elisabeth (February 4, 2001). "Poet explores meaning of a 'Portable Planet'". The Davis Enterprise. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ The Maui News (April 13, 2008). "Poet Shaffer to read at Wailuku Library". The Maui News. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ EBSCO Publishing (2014). "Citations with the tag: SHAFFER, Eric Paul". Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ Leaping Dog Press (2012). "Eric Paul Shaffer". Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ "Elliot Cades Award for Literature". The Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. 2012. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ Hawaii Pacific University (2013). "James Vaughan Award for Poetry". Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
- ^ Staff report (October 29, 2006). "Ka Palapala Po'okela winners named". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
External links
[edit]| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 21st-century American novelists
- 20th-century American novelists
- American male novelists
- Living people
- Novelists from Hawaii
- University of California, Davis alumni
- University of Hawaiʻi faculty
- 21st-century American poets
- 20th-century American poets
- American male poets
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- Academic staff of the University of the Ryukyus