SUNDAY READINGS, Part Three

Our rescheduled readings from 2025 Tribute to Poets –
More than 120 Maine poets have participated in Longfellow Days’ Sunday Readings.  Today we remember three who departed in 2024: Sally Cowperthwaite reads poetry by her late father Steve Cowperthwaite.  James Brasfield reads work by his classmate and friend Rob Farnsworth. Maryli Tiemann reads poetry by her mentor Ruth Bookey and introduces Nicole Chvatal, reading her own work.

Reader#1
Sarah Cooperwaithe reads works by her father, Steven Cooperwaithe 

Steve was a pioneer of sorts, making the old ways cool again. A poet and author, he found solace and expression through his writing. At the urging of his fantastic poetry peers, he published his work, Boulders, Birch, and Woodsmoke: A Maine Melody (2014), which highlighted his boyhood growing up on a farm in rural Maine, his early experiences as a school teacher on a remote island, and his home on Parker Pond. He was a masterful storyteller, dotting his tales with rich characters and beautiful landscapes.

Reader #2:
James Brasfield reads works by his classmate Rob Farnsworth

Rob Farnsworth (1954-2024) was a poet and teacher who made his home in Maine since 1983. His last collection of poetry was Rumored Islands. He served as poetry editor of The American Scholar for seven years and spent a summer as resident poet at The Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire. Rob first taught at Colby College and then at Bates from 1990 until his retirement in 2018. An energetic and generous teacher, he won the excellence in teaching award at Bates twice. Through his work with the Maine Humanities Council, Rob brought poetry to libraries, schools, jails, and hospitals. He spent his final years in Greene, at his home on the Androscoggin River.

James Brasfield was born in Savannah, Georgia, and graduated with Rob from Columbia’s M.F.A. program in 1979. Brasfield is the author of three books of poetry from Louisiana State University Press, most recently Cove, in 2023. Twice a Senior Fulbright Fellow to Ukraine, he’s received grants for poetry from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. His translation of The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha, published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University Press, won the 2000 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Retired from  teaching English at Penn State University, he lives in Belfast with his wife, the writer Charlotte Holmes.

Reader #3
Maryli Tiemann reads works by Ruth Bookey

Ruth Bookey and her family fled to the United States from Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. She began writing poetry inspired by her poet husband Ted and poetry groups that met at their home. Together Ruth and Ted translated works of the German poet Erich Kästner. Her poetry books include Life Class and I Still Feel the Swirl.

Maryli Tiemann is an educator and writer of essays and poems as well as reflections for area UU church services.  She helped to create Longfellow Days, and with the support and talents of Maine’s poets and fans of poetry, has continued to shepherd it over 22 years.

Reader #4  Nicole Chvatal reads her own work

Nicole Chvatal writes property deeds and other witty things and lives in Bath, Maine. Her work has appeared in Popshot Quarterly, SWWIM Daily, Quarter After Eight, LEON Literary Review, The Portland Press Herald and Deep Overstock Magazine. She is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.