My new poetry collection, On the Borders of Belonging, and Breaking The Silence, An Anthology of Liberian Poetry

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My new poetry collection, On the Borders of Belonging, is coming out this summer 2023.

These poems are dedicated to my forefathers, the Finches, Marshes, Josephs, Hendriksons, Willetts and Maynards, who willingly and unwillingly crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean Islands from European and African shores; my parents, Gilbert Romeo, Daisy Marsh Romeo with whom my siblings and I had our first immigrant experience and whose animated storytelling lit my imagination; and immigrants who have sacrificed everything in search of new homelands.

For most, these are havens, the secondhand homes, which, though ill-fitting at first, eventually become the accepted abode after several decades. Despite living on the edge of belonging, passing time, and survival instincts, allow most to settle well in heart and mind, in new SHELL/ters.

I am also proud to be included in Breaking the Silence, Anthology of Liberian Poetry. A place I earned as a founding member of the Liberian Association of Writers. With the encouragement and support of Dr. Wingrove. Dwawina, head of the English Department of the University of Liberia, the Liberian Association of writers was formed on July 17, 1982, after a successful writers’ conference in the same year. 

ALTOONA, Pa. — Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, has published a new book, “Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry.” The anthology, which is her seventh book of poetry, her second edited anthology, and her ninth published book, including a children’s book, was recently released from the University of Nebraska Press in January 2023.

The 302-page anthology of poetry is the first comprehensive collection of any work of literature from Liberia, her original homeland, since before the nation’s independence in 1847. The book contains the work of dozens of poets, including Liberia’s early writers from the 1800s to the present.

This edited anthology was made possible by a one-semester sabbatical from Penn State Altoona and a 2020-21 Penn State Resident Faculty Fellowship from the Humanities Institute. 

The sabbatical and fellowship allowed Jabbeh Wesley to research and work on the collection. Included in the anthology are early founders of the African republic, including authors like President Edwin James Barclay, the 18th President of Liberia, and the author of Liberia’s National song, “The Lone Star Forever.”

Gabeba Baderoon, an associate professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies, and African Studies at Penn State wrote of the book: “Gathering and curating the first-ever anthology of Liberian poetry, Wesley has made literary history and immeasurably enriched the literature of the region and the continent. The collection opens with her thoughtful introduction to this immense endeavor and then introduces readers to a broad library of poems, ranging from hard-to-source early work from the 1800s to some of the newest writing emerging from the country, nurtured into being in generative workshops run by Wesley in Monrovia. Her combination of archaeological research and mentorship of younger writers means that 'Breaking the Silence' will stand as the definitive source on Liberian poetry for years to come.”

Booker Prize-winning renowned Afro-British author Bernardine Evaristo writes, “This compendium of Liberian poetry put together by the visionary writer, teacher, and survivor of the civil war, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, is an inspiring achievement.”

Also included in the anthology is poetry by dozens of young, aspiring Liberian poets who participated in numerous summer writing workshops that Jabbeh Wesley conducted in Monrovia and across the country during her scholarly visits between 2016 to 2019 and a six-week Master Writing workshop in 2020. Her summer visits to Liberia, in preparation for work on the anthology, were partly supported by small internal grants from Penn State Altoona.

More on Liberia Association of Writers

 In conjunction with the University of Liberia and the United States Information Service (USIS) workshops were conducted with writers Dr. Mary Niles Black and Clarence Major, in 1983. We held a teleconference with Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelo was invited twice to give talks and conduct writers’ workshops.

            Moses Nagbe and Althea Romeo Mark represented LAW and the University of Liberia at a Writers’ Conference organized by the Pan African Association of Writers in Accra, Ghana in 1989. LAW was a founding member. Other countries represented at this conference were Ghana, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, the Camerons, the Gambia, Morocco, Mali, and Zambia,

Althea Romeo Mark’s upcoming publication,  On the Borders of Belonging, is expected to be published in the summer of 2023. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, The Nakedness of New and If Only the Dust Would Settle, (English-German), and three chapbooks, Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer, Two Faces, Two Phases and Palaver, Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi. The Silent Dancing Spirit is an anthology that includes poems by Althea Romeo-Mark and prose and poetry from participants in a Black Writers’ workshop conducted at the Department of African American Affairs at Kent State University.

Her last poetry collection, The Nakedness of New was published in 2018.