Fwd: Poetry Reading
Dan Wilcox
From: Richard Levine <poetr...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 11, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Subject: Poetry Reading
To: Dan Wilcox <dwl...@gmail.com>
FIELD AND FOREST - POETS OF THE CATSKILLS: RICHARD LEVINE, BERTHA ROGERS, MATTHEW J. SPIRENG TO READ AT FRANKLYN VILLAGE NY PARK
On Wednesday, August 13, at 2 pm, the Field and Forest Poets of the Catskills will present a program of their poetry and conversation. The readings, which are sponsored by Franklin Free Library and Poets and Writers Inc. will take place at the Franklin Village Park, just next door from the Franklin Free Library at 334 Main Street, Franklin. In case of rain, the readings will be held in the Library. The readings are free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. For more information, call call 607-829-2941 or email fr....@rcls.org. Richard Levine, Bertha Rogers, and Matthew Spireng, the Field and Forest Poets of the Catskills, will read from their poetry at the Franklin Public Park, just next door to the Franklin Free Library at 334 Main St.. (If it rains, the reading will take place at the Library). The readings, sponsored by the Library and Poets & Writers, are free and open to the public.
RICHARD
LEVINE is the author of Taming the Hours: an Almanac with Marginalia (forthcoming, Fernwood Press); Now in Contest; Richard Levine:
Selected Poems; Contiguous States and five chapbooks, including A Tide of a Hundred Mountains, 2012 Bright Hill Press Award. He is also the recipient of the 2021 Connecticut Poetry Society Award. A
Vietnam veteran, he co--edited War in Ukraine: 2022. A retired New York City teacher, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
BERTHA ROGERS is a poet, translator, and visual artist. Her
poetry collections (from Salmon, Ireland) include What Want Brings: New &
Selected Poems; Wild, Again; and Heart Turned Back, and several chapbooks and
interdisciplinary collections. Her translation of Beowulf was published in 2000
(Birch Brook, NY), her translation with illuminations of the Anglo-Saxon
Riddle-Poems from the Exeter Book, Uncommon Creatures (Six Swans, 2019). Her
poems and translations appear in literary publications, and she has been
awarded fellowships by the MacDowell Colony, Hawthornden International Writers
Retreat, and others. Her writings on inclusion and cultural diversity have been
published in Open the Door, Education Week, and Poetry Foundation's Harriet
Blog. She and her husband, Ernest M. Fishman (deceased) founded Bright Hill
Press & Literary Center for the Catskills.
MATTHEW J. SPIRENG is the author of What Focus Is (WordTech
Communications, 2011) and Out of Body (Bluestem Press, 2004), winner of the
2004 Bluestem Poetry Award. He is also the author of five chapbooks: Clear Cut;
Young Farmer; Encounters; Inspiration Point, winner of the 2000 Bright Hill
Press Poetry Chapbook Competition; and Just This. Since 1990, more than 900 of
his poems have appeared in publications across the United States including
North American Review, Tar River Poetry, Rattle, Louisiana Literature, English
Journal and Poet Lore. He has won five national poetry contests for individual
poems and is an eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee.
For more information, contact Library Director Xina Sheehan
at 334 Main Street Franklin, NY 13775, US - (607)829-2941 - fr....@4cls.org. fr....@4cls.org