JERRY WEMPLE

A Pennsylvania native, Jerry Wemple writes frequently about the people and places of the Susquehanna Valley. His work includes four poetry collections. His most recent, We Always Wondered What Became of You, from Broadstone Books, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. 

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His other poetry collections include Artemas & Ark: the Ridge and Valley poems from Finishing Line Press, The Civil War in Baltimore from Word Press, and  You Can See It from Here, selected by Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa for the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. He is also the author of two poetry chapbooks. 

 

He is co-editor, along with Marjorie Maddox, of the anthologies Keystone Poetry (2025) and Common Wealth (2005), both from Penn State University Press. He also co-edited, with AD Stuart, Rivers, Ridges, and Valleys: Essays on Rural Pennsylvania, a collection of work by 27 writers from around the state. 

 

His poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction appear in numerous journals and anthologies and has been published internationally in Ireland, Sweden, and Chile.

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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  for his teaching and scholarship.

• 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 Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program. .