JERRY WEMPLE

A Pennsylvania native, Jerry Wemple writes frequently about the people and places of the Susquehanna Valley. His work includes three poetry collections: You Can See It from Here, selected by Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa for the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, The Civil War in Baltimore, and Artemas and Ark: the Ridge and Valley poems. He is also the author of two poetry chapbooks. 

 

He is co-editor, along with Marjorie Maddox, of the anthology Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. Wemple and Maddox have begun work on a second anthology of Pennsylvania poetry. His creative nonfiction has been published in several venues include the online journal Full Grown People and the newsmagazine Ozy.com. 

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He is the recipient of several awards for writing and teaching:

• The Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award

• The Word Journal Chapbook Prize

• A Fellowship in Literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

• The Jack and Helen Evans Endowed Faculty Fellowship from Bloomsburg University

• Two-time recipient of the Dean's Salute to Excellence at Bloomsburg University

• Bloomsburg University Institute for Culture and Society Award for Outstanding Creative Work

• A Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center

• The Celebrate Literacy Award from the Susquehanna Valley Reading Council

• A Best of the Net award nomination for poetry

• Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry and creative nonfiction

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Jerry Wemple is a Professor of English at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program. .