Field & Forest Poets of the Catskills

RICHARD LEVINE is the author of Now in Contest (Fernwood Press, 2023); Richard Levine: Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2019); Contiguous States (Finishing Line Press, 2018); and five chapbooks: The Cadence of Mercy, A Tide of a Hundred Mountains, That Country’s Soul, A Language Full of Wars and Songs, and Snapshots from a Battle. He is the recipient of the 2021 Connecticut Poetry Society Award. His work is archived in LaSalle University’s Special Collections Library. A Vietnam veteran and retired New York City teacher, he has written reviews for American Book Review. 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.

In the Franklin Village Park August 13 @ 2:00pm
Free & open to the public. Refreshments served!