Editor's note: This event has been canceled.
ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona will host a poetry reading from faculty members Todd Davis, Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley and Erin Murphy from 12:10 to 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, in the Pond View Lounge of the Slep Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Davis is a professor of English and environmental studies. He is the author of eight full-length collections of poetry, most recently “Ditch Memory: New & Selected Poems” and “Coffin Honey.” He has won numerous prizes for his work, including the Midwest Book Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, and the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year.
Jabbeh-Wesley is the author/editor of several books, including "Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Literature," the first comprehensive volume of Liberian poetry since the nation’s independence. Her poems and memoir articles have been published in such places as Harvard Review, Transition, The New York Times Magazine, and Poetry Magazine, and her poetry has been translated into many languages. A forthcoming 500-page collected edition, “Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: Collected Poems, 1998-2020,” (University of Nebraska Press, 2026) was named a Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 collections of poetry coming out in 2026. Her awards include the 2022 Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, the 2022 Levinson Prize, and the 2021 Edward Stanley Prize from Prairie Schooner.
Murphy, professor of English, is the author or editor of 16 books, most recently “Swoon: New and Selected Poems” and “Human Resources.” An anthology of documentary poetry is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. Her awards include a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, two Foreword INDIES Book of the Year awards, Best of the Net and Best Microfiction honors, the Foley Poetry Award, the Patterson Prize for Literary Excellence, and the 2025 American Book Fest Best Book Award.