Longfellow Days 2026
Finding Your Voice
In this, our 22nd year of honoring the legacy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, we continue to offer poets, presentations, music, workshops, tours, and an interfaith service. As ever, we’ll conclude with a festive open mic celebration on Longfellow’s birthday.
Longfellow Days is all about poetry! Audiences of all ages are invited and all events are free. Help us honor and explore the distinct acts of creating, writing, performing and enjoying poetry.
Portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1862, Painted by George Peter Alexander Healy, (1813-1894), Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Schedule of Events
Sun, Feb 01, 1 pm, Sunday Readings Part One (Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union, Bowdoin)
Wed, Feb 04, 1 pm, Winter Wisdom: A Poet’s Dilemma (UU Church)
Sun, Feb 08, 1 pm, Sunday Readings, Part Two (Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union)
Thu, Feb 12, 2 pm, Interpreting a Poem (Pejepscot History Center, 159 Park Row)
Sat, Feb 14, 11 am & 1 pm, Chamberlain House Program (226 Maine Street)
Sun, Feb 15, 10 am, Interfaith Service (UU Church)
Sun, Feb 15, Sunday Readings, Part Three (Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union)
Fri, Feb 20, Christmas Bells Lecture (Merrymeeting Room, Thornton Oaks)
Sun, Feb 22, Sunday Readings, Part Four (Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union)
Fri, Feb 27, Open Mic & Longfellow Birthday Celebration (UU Church)
Sunday, Feb 1, 1:00 PM ~
SUNDAY READINGS, Part One
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union, Bowdoin College
Join Poets, Samaa Abdurraqib, Jeanne Bamforth, and David Stankiewicz for the first in our series of four Sunday Poetry Readings in our new location in Lancaster Lounge in Moulton Union, with a seat for everyone.
Poet #1 Samaa Abdurraqib
Samaa Abdurraqib (she/her) is an auntie and a birder based in Brunswick. She’s the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast (2023). Her chapbook, Towards a Retreat was published by Diode Editions in August 2025. Samaa is a certified Maine Master Naturalist and is the Executive Director of Maine Humanities Council.
Poet #2 Jeanne Bamforth
Jeanne L. Bamforth lives and writes on Merrymeeting Bay, an inland confluence of six rivers, and has had poems published in Balancing Act 2, an Anthology of Poems by Maine Women (Littoral Books), Northern New England Review, Philly Poetry Chapbook Review, Stone Poetry Quarterly, and Willows Wept Review, and aired on Maine Public Radio’s Poems from Here.
Poet #3 David Stankiewicz
David Stankiewicz is a professor of English & Humanities at Southern Maine Community College. A graduate of Andover Newton Theological School and the Stonecoast MFA program, he is the author of two poetry collections: Night Garden (Deerbrook Editions, 2024) and My First Beatrice (Moon Pie Press, 2013). He lives with his wife, two daughters, one dog, one snake, and one gecko in Cape Elizabeth.
Wednesday, Feb 4, 1:00 pm ~
WINTER WISDOM: A Poet’s Dilemma
Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Middle Street, Brunswick
Highlighting our “Finding Your Voice” theme, we focus on the poet’s extra challenge: Sharing a poem aloud! This presentation offers video of famous poets, readings and insights by local poets in-person, followed by your questions and discussion. Co-sponsored with Midcoast Senior College.
Sunday, Feb 8, 1:00 PM ~
SUNDAY READINGS, Part Two
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union at Bowdoin College
Poet #1 Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc’s first collection of poems, Death of a Ventriloquist, won the Vassar Miller Prize, and his second, Deke Dangle Dive, was published by CavanKerry in 2021. His poems have appeared in the New Republic, Tin House, Narrative Magazine, and Orion, and he currently serves as Executive Director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.
Poet #2 Dawn Potter
Dawn Potter is the author or editor of ten books of prose and poetry—most recently the poetry collection Calendar. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, she has also won a Maine Literary Award for nonfiction and has received grants and fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Writer’s Center, and the Maine Arts Commission. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, the Sewanee Review, the Threepenny Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and many other journals. After teaching at the Frost Place for more than a decade, she now leads poetry programs at Monson Arts. She lives in Portland, Maine.
Poet #3 Mike Bove
Mike Bove is the author of four books of poetry. He served as a 2024 Writer-in-Residence at Acadia National Park and is Associate Editor for Hole in the Head Review. Mike is professor of English at Southern Maine Community College and lives with his family in Portland, Maine where he was born and raised.
Thursday, Feb 12, 2 pm ~
INTERPRETING A POEM
Pejepscot History Center, 159 Park Row
Once again Karin Dillman will provide a fresh, inviting approach to interpreting poems. Participants will discuss poems by Denise Levertov and Anthony Hecht. Refreshments will be available.
Co-Sponsored with Pejepscot History Center.
Advance Registration is Required: To reserve a space, please send an email with subject “Interpreting Three Poems” to ">. Please include name(s) of registrants, and phone number for primary contact. (limit 20 participants)
Saturday, Feb 14, 11 am & 1 pm ~
CHAMBERLAIN HOUSE PROGRAM
226 Maine Street, Brunswick
Gemma Cannon, author of Voices of the Night, will share the love story of Henry and his first wife, Mary. This talk in the parlor is paired with a visit to the original “Longfellow Room” where they lived. Chamberlain Museum site manager, Janice Smith, will be on hand to give brief tours of the Chamberlain family spaces. Tours are strictly limited to 15 people each.
Registration is Required: Email: with Subject: “LD Tour” Please give preferred time, registrant name(s), and a phone number.
Co-Sponsored with Pejepscot History Center.
Gemma Cannon, a graduate from Holy Cross College and Columbia University School of Social Work, received the Nautilus Book Award in the category of Death & Dying/Grief & Loss for Voices of the Night.
In her award-winning book, she combines wisdom from Longfellow with lessons from her social work clients. They taught her that, whether homeless in Times Square or a world-class poet and writer, we’re not always fortunate, and we all need inner strength and hope to survive a crisis.
She lives with her family near Longfellow’s boyhood home in Portland, Maine, “the beautiful city by the sea.”
Sunday, February 15, 10:00 AM ~
INTERFAITH SERVICE: One Way to Embody Resilience
Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Middle Street
Our annual interfaith Longfellow Days service explores how discovering and using your voice purposefully is one way of embodying resilience. Come for the poetry, the music, the community, and the opportunity to make connections. Service led by Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos, Minister.
Visit the Bible Longfellow signed and donated to his church in 1878.
Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos is an ordained minister with over 20 years of professional experience in pastoral ministry and denominational leadership. Rev. Amos holds plural ministerial standing in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) where she was granted full fellowship in 2024, as well as the Metropolitan Community Churches where she was originally ordained in 2002. She is a preacher, activist, writer, singer, educator, fundraiser, and administrator with a passion for engaging others who are committed to spiritual growth, inclusive community, and social justice.
Sunday, February 15, 1:00 PM ~
SUNDAY READINGS, Part Three
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union at Bowdoin College
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.
Friday, February 20, 1:00 pm ~
CHRISTMAS BELLS – Longfellow’s Poem and the Civil War
Merrymeeting Room at Thornton Oaks, 25 Thornton Way (off Baribeau)
Author John Babin will speak on Longfellow’s inspiration for the poem “Christmas Bells,” written during the American Civil War, and explain how this classic Longfellow poem became the beloved Christmas carol.
John William Babin is the author of three books on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s life and poetry. John’s work as a research assistant has been acknowledged in several books and articles published worldwide about the Longfellow Family. He works at the Maine Historical Society as the Visitor Services Manager of the Wadsworth Longfellow House.
In 2025 Babin published a children’s book, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. This book contains a story about the poet, the poem, and explains how the poem became the carol we all know. There are colorful illustrations accompanying the words of the carol.
Sunday, February 22, 1:00 PM ~
SUNDAY READINGS, Part Four
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union at Bowdoin College
We close our 2026 Readings with three more Maine poets who have achieved notoriety beyond their books. Marcia Brown. Marita O’Neil and Kate Kearns.
Poet #1 Marcia F. Brown
Marcia F. Brown is the author of five books of poetry and the essay collection Well Read, Well Fed ~ A Year of Great Reads and Simple Dishes for Book Groups. Marcia served as Poet Laureate for the City of Portland, ME and co-hosts the monthly Local Buzz Reading Series at The Yarmouth History Center.
Poet #2 Marita O’Neill
Marita O’Neill lives in Portland with her dog, Sweetpea. She received her MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has had poems published in the Maine Sunday Telegram’s “Deep Water” series, Maine Public Radio’s “Poems from Here,” Cafe Review, and other magazines. Deerbrook Editions published her new book, Wild Nest, No Prison, last spring.
Poet #3 Kate Kearns
Kate Kearns is the author of You Are Ruining My Loneliness (Littoral Books, 2023), and a chapbook called How to Love an Introvert (Finishing Line Press, 2015). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Appalachian Review, Common Ground Review, Sugar House Review, Maine Sunday Telegram, Maine Public Radio’s “Poems from Here,” and elsewhere. Kate was a finalist for the 2024 Charles Simic Poetry Prize and the 2024 Maine Postmark Poetry Contest. She earned her MFA from Lesley
Friday, February 27, 5:30 PM ~
OPEN MIC & LONGFELLOW’S 219th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Middle Street
Our annual Open Mic with host Ren Bernier, a cappella music by Bowdoin’s “Longfellows,” and BIRTHDAY CAKE. Come share your poem or another’s that you appreciate.
Sign up begins at 5:15. Guidelines: One Page, Limit of 25 Readers.
Visit the Bible Longfellow signed and donated to his church in 1878.
Longfellow Days is an annual month-long cultural and community program honoring the legacy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with support from Bowdoin College, Brunswick Downtown Association, Midcoast Senior College, Nathaniel Davis Fund, Pejepscot History Center, The Senter Fund, Thornton Oaks, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick.
Thanks to our sponsors, ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.