Patricia Jabbeh Wesley Biography: Books, Age, Height, Marriage, Awards, Son, Net Worth, Religion

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is a Liberian-American poet, educator, and author whose writing reflects her experiences of war, exile, motherhood, and identity.

Her first collection of poems, Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa (1998), brought her international attention as a voice of the Liberian diaspora, and she has since become a distinguished professor of English and creative writing in the United States.

Profile

• Full name: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
• Date of birth: August 7, 1955
• Age: 70 years old
• Gender: Female
• Place of birth: Monrovia, Liberia
• State of origin: Maryland County, Liberia
• Nationality: Liberian-American
• Profession: Poet, Professor of English and Creative Writing
• Height: 5 feet 5 inches
• Weight: 70 kg (approx.)
• Eye color: Dark brown
• Hair color: Black
• Parents: Rev. Gaye Jabbeh (father)
• Siblings: Several siblings
• Spouse: Dr. Mlen-Too Wesley
• Children: Four children
• Relationship status: Married
• Religion: Christian
• Ethnicity: Grebo (Liberia)
• Net worth: $500,000 – $1 million

Early Life and Education

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley (70 years old) was born on August 7, 1955, in Monrovia, Liberia. She spent part of her childhood both in the city and in her ancestral village of Tugbakeh in Maryland County, where she learned the Grebo language. Her upbringing in a bilingual, bicultural environment deeply influenced her poetic identity and linguistic style.

She attended the University of Liberia, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English. She later moved to the United States, obtaining a Master of Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University.

Her experiences of escaping the 14-year Liberian Civil War in 1991, and rebuilding life in the U.S. as a refugee, profoundly shaped her writing, often centered on displacement, survival, and resilience.

Personal Life

Patricia is married to Dr. Mlen-Too Wesley, an educationist and former Vice President for Academic Affairs at William V. S. Tubman University in Harper, Liberia. The couple fled Liberia in 1991 with their young family during the civil war and settled in the United States.

She is the mother of four children, whose lives and her maternal experiences often feature in her work. Wesley has described herself as “a poet of witness,” balancing motherhood with activism and academic life.

Career

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley began writing poetry in her youth but gained prominence in the late 1990s after the publication of her debut collection, Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa (1998), which explores Liberian identity and post-war trauma.

Her second book, Becoming Ebony (2003), won the Crab Orchard Award for Poetry, solidifying her position in contemporary African literature. She has since published several acclaimed collections, including The River is Rising, When the Wanderers Come Home, and Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems (2020), which earned her the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award in 2022.

Wesley is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, where she teaches African literature, diaspora narratives, and poetry. She is also the editor of the groundbreaking 2023 anthology Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry, the first comprehensive anthology of Liberian poets across generations.

Her works have been featured in The New York Times, World Literature Today, and Poetry Magazine, and she is widely recognized as a key figure in African diaspora literature.

Awards and Honors

• 2002: Crab Orchard Award (for Becoming Ebony)
• 2022: Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award (for Praise Song for My Children)
• Levinson Prize, Poetry Foundation (date undisclosed)
• Edward Stanley Award, Poetry International (date undisclosed)
• Penn State Humanities Institute Fellowship
• Institute for the Arts and Humanities Fellowship (IAH)

Net Worth

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley’s estimated net worth is between $500,000 and $1 million USD. Her income sources include: salary as a tenured professor at Penn State University Altoona, book sales and royalties from poetry collections and anthologies etc.

Social Media

• Twitter/X: @JabbehWesley
• LinkedIn: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Books

• Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa (1998)
• Becoming Ebony (2003)
• The River is Rising (2007)
• Where the Road Turns (2010)
• When the Wanderers Come Home (2016)
• Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems (2020)
• Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry (Editor, 2023)