ALTOONA, Pa. — Two award-winning poems by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, were selected among the editor’s picks by Kwame Dawes, Managing Editor of Prairie Schooner.
Jabbeh Wesley’s poems, "My Name is Dawanyeno," and "When My Husband Prayed," which won the 2021 Edward Stanley Award in Poetry from Prairie Schooner Magazine, were selected and included in the special issue celebrating 12 years of the publication. The book, "The Schooner: Editor’s Picks, 12 Years of Transformative Work," was published in 2024.
Jabbeh Wesley was also a featured poet in Mistake House Magazine’s "Soap Bubble Set," published by Principia College. Jabbeh Wesley was interviewed and several of her poems were published, including, "Flying," "I Come from a Country Where Black People Still Call Themselves Slaves," "November," "Before That First Shot is Fired" and "Patriotic Song for My Country."
Jabbeh Wesley's poetry was also featured from August through November 2024 in Brittle Paper, a literary magazine published out of University of Wisconsin. Featured poems included “When Iyeeh Visits,” “The Sin of the God of Skin Color,” “Everything is a Woman” and “For Cassandra, the Night Manager at My Timeshare.” Brittle Paper previously recognized Jabbeh Wesley by selecting her anthology, "Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry," among the 2023 100 Notable Books in African Literature.