Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is an anti-war, women’s rights/human rights activist whose poetics has given voice to the Liberian war dead and survivors of the 14 year Liberian civil war for more than two decades. She immigrated to the United States with her husband and small children in 1991 during the Liberian civil war. She is the author of six collections of poetry, including, Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems, When the Wanderers Come Home, Where the Road Turns, among others. Wesley is editor of a forthcoming anthology, “Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry,” (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). She founded Young Scholars of Liberia, a nonprofit that mentors young Liberian, aspirant writers, helping them publish their own poetry and stories by conducting free writing workshops in Liberia and online. Her individual poems, short stories, and memoir articles have appeared in dozens of anthologies and magazines, including in Harvard Review, Transition, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times Magazine, Black Renaissance Noir, among others, and her poetry has been translated into several languages. She is Professor of English, Creative Writing, and African Literature at Penn State University.

Website: www.patriciajabbehwesley.com

Twitter Username: @patriciajabbeh

Publications

• Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems , Autumn House Press (March 2020)
• When the Wanderers Come Home: Poems , University of Nebraska Press (November 1, 2016)
• Where the Road Turns: Poems , Autumn House Press (October 2010)

Employment

• Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing & African Lit at Penn State University Altoona (August 2005 - )

Degrees

• Doctoral Degree in Creative Writing and English from Western Michigan University (June 2002)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Children's literature , Poetry