MOSAIC Pieces

Wes Skillings retired from newspaper journalism on April 1, 2011, after 38 years as a reporter, columnist and editor where, among his assignments for three different newspapers, he covered everything from municipal meetings to murder trials. He is a Vietnam vet with a BA in English from Mansfield (PA) University, formerly Mansfield State College, where he won a national writing award with an essay in The Atlantic Magazine Creative Writing Contests for College Students.

As a journalist, he received numerous Keystone Press Awards from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association (PNA) - fifteen of them over his last 11 years in the business. Eight placed first in the state in their respective categories. His first award came years before in 1980-a first place for Public Service from the Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania.

Additionally, he is a self-published author whose first book published in 2014 was about one man's triumph over traumatic brain injury ("A Matter of Recovery: The Story of C.B. Miller").

On October 7, 2022, Skillings published this meticulously researched book about small town justice and its abuses stemming from the October 1973 murder of a twelve-year-old girl: Mosaic Pieces: Surviving the Dark Side of American Justice. In the summer of 2025, the book was republished under his own brand.

A father and grandfather, he and wife of 56 years as of February 1, 2025, Mary, live in healthy retirement in hometown Wyalusing, PA.