Will grew up on a farm in northern Minnesota.  He graduated from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University.  His debut novel, Red Earth, White Earth, was published by Simon & Schuster, and was produced as a CBS television movie.  A Gravestone Made of Wheat & Other Stories won the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction.  The New York Times Book Review called it "…a graceful collection, one that views America's heartland with a candid but charitable eye.”

Several of his stories have been produced by National Public Radio and other arts groups. The title story, A Gravestone Made of Wheat was adapted into the film Sweet Land, starring Alan Cumming and Ned Beatty. In 2017 Sweet Land was produced as a musical by the History Theatre of Saint Paul.

A versatile writer, Will Weaver's several novels for young adults include Memory Boy and Striking Out (HarperCollins). Chosen as a teen “top ten” book by the American Library Association, Memory Boy was a 2016 production of the Minnesota Opera, Youth Division. His nonfiction work includes The Last Hunter, Barns of Minnesota, and the introduction to Libraries of Minnesota.

A recent judge for the National Book Awards and a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post,  he is currently finishing new novel for adults, plus editing a recently discovered memoir of childhood by the late Minnesota author Jon Hassler.