Sibilla Hershey

Sibilla Hershey was born in Riga, Latvia and came to America at the age of fifteen as a World War II displaced person. She experienced World War II in person as a child in Latvia and in Germany. After World War II, as a child and teenager, she spent six years living in refugee camps in Germany. She dreamed of one day telling the story of her family and the psychological impact of war on both the young and the old. She studied Chemistry at Brooklyn College and worked in medical research at Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Later she studied Social Work and worked for the State of California as Clinical Social worker and Program Analyst. Early in life she became interested in literature and was an avid reader of poetry and prose. She read in Latvian, then in German and English. She started writing at age 40 and published poetry in various literary journals. She is also the author of a book of poetry entitled The Bleeding Tree.