Ken Weisner, English professor and published poet, can perhaps be satisfactorily and succinctly summarized as a man of two great passions: a love of words and a love of teaching. But not just teaching anywhere: “It’s teaching at De Anza – it’s a special opportunity that I cherish,” he says.
His poetic career started with tragedy: the death of his father when he was young. The sorrow inflicted upon his life drove Weisner to write the first of many poems.
Since then, Weisner has become a featured poet in dozens of literary magazines, including the Antioch Review and Berkeley Poetry Review. He is the author of a full-length book of poems, “The Sacred Geometry of Pedestrians,” released by Hummingbird Press in 2002. He was the editor of Quarry West magazine, published out of UC Santa Cruz. He has a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers Workshop and a Ph.D. in American Literature from UC Santa Cruz. He was active throughout central California as a Poet-in-the-Schools through the organization Heart of the Word.
Talk to him a bit, and you get the sense that these amazing accomplishments are the foothills of what he considers his greatest achievement: his work with students at De Anza, both in the classroom, teaching English and poetry, and as adviser to the student edition of the college literary magazine, Red Wheelbarrow.
It doesn’t stop there. He’s involved in the creation of De Anza’s new CREM program, a cooperation between English and math classes in which a pair of instructors – one from math and one from English – spend time in one another’s classes. Math assignments in the CREM program draw from English course readings, and English critical thinking topics connect with math related themes. The goal is for students and instructors “to explore together the relations between math and English analytical and critical thinking skills,” and to “increase the quality of students’ experience in general education classes and their ability to succeed.”
In the rare moments when Weisner isn’t eagerly tackling a major project on campus and teaching the joys of the English language to initially skeptical students, he’s a French horn aficionado – he plays with the Santa Cruz Brass Quintet and Surf City Brass -- and a fan of what he calls a “very poetic sport,” baseball. Alas, being a Giants fan means, he says, that the poem itself is somewhat of “a tragicomedy.” But he holds out hope. After all, he says, “if the Red Sox can win the World Series, then the Giants have a chance, too.”