Eric Paul Shaffer

{{short description|American novelist and poet}}

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,{{cite news|url=http://literarylotus.com/2010/01/06/book-review-burn-learn-eric-paul-shaffer/|title=Book Review: Burn & Learn|last=Thomas|first=Christine|date=January 4, 2010|newspaper=Honolulu Advertiser|accessdate=2014-01-20}} he formerly taught at Maui Community College and the University of the Ryukyus on Okinawa.{{cite news|url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Jun/16/il/il06a.html|title=Book is like a quick return to Japan, poet says|last=Adams|first=Wanda|date=June 16, 2002|newspaper=Honolulu Advertiser|accessdate=2014-01-20}} 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,{{cite news|url=https://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/502527/Poet-Shaffer-to-read-at-Wailuku-Library.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131220191107/http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/502527/Poet-Shaffer-to-read-at-Wailuku-Library.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |title=Poet Shaffer to read at Wailuku Library |last=The Maui News |date=April 13, 2008 |newspaper=The Maui News |accessdate=2014-01-20 }} the Chiron Review, Slate, The Sun Magazine, and the North American Review,{{cite web|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/tag/SHAFFER%252C%2BEric%2BPaul|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203183858/http://connection.ebscohost.com/tag/SHAFFER%2C+Eric+Paul|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-02-03|title=Citations with the tag: SHAFFER, Eric Paul|last=EBSCO Publishing|date=2014|accessdate=2014-01-20}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.leapingdogpress.com/authors/eric-paul-shaffer|title=Eric Paul Shaffer|last=Leaping Dog Press|date=2012|accessdate=2014-01-20}} He is the author of eight collections of poetry and one novel. Free Speech, a volume containing two poem sequences, Road Sign Suite: Across America and Again and Restoring Lady Liberty, will appear from Coyote Arts in 2025.

Shaffer is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he received a Ph.D. in American Literature in 1991.{{cite web|url=http://dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2001/eric.html|title=Poet explores meaning of a 'Portable Planet'|last=Sherwin|first=Elisabeth|date=February 4, 2001|publisher=The Davis Enterprise|accessdate=2014-01-20}} 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.

Shaffer received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, Hawaii's highest literary honor, in 2002,{{cite web|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/hlac/cadesaw.html|title=Elliot Cades Award for Literature|date=2012|publisher=The Hawai'i Literary Arts Council|accessdate=2014-01-20}} and the James Vaughan Award for Poetry in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.hpu.edu/CHSS/English/LitLife/Vaughan/vaughan_award1.html|title=James Vaughan Award for Poetry|last=Hawaii Pacific University|date=2013|accessdate=2014-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203061917/http://www.hpu.edu/CHSS/English/LitLife/Vaughan/vaughan_award1.html|archive-date=2014-02-03|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite news|url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Oct/29/il/FP610290335.html|title=Ka Palapala Po'okela winners named|last=Staff report|date=October 29, 2006|newspaper=Honolulu Advertiser|accessdate=2014-01-20}} His poetry collection Even Further West received an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Awards.