Bertha Rogers, named First Poet Laureate of Delaware County, New York, in March 2005, is a poet, translator, visual artist, and master teaching artist.
More than 250 of her poems and critical reviews have appeared in such journals as Many Mountains Moving, The MacGuffin, Connecticut Review, Laurel Review, Karamu, Nimrod, Chelsea, Pivot, Yankee, and Barrow Street; and in several anthologies.
Her poetry collections include Sleeper, You Wake (Mellen, 1991), The Fourth Beast (Snark Publishing, 2004), For the Girl Buried in the Peat Bog (Six Swans Artists Editions, 1999), and A House of Corners, winner of the Maryland State Poetry Society and Review Competition (Three Conditions Press, Baltimore, 2000). Her translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, was published in 2000 by Birch Brook Press, Delhi, New York, and her interdisciplinary “Beowulf” exhibit with readings and workshops toured the United States from 2000-2002.
In 2005, Bertha published Even the Hemlock, a collection of words and images from her “Even the Hemlock: Reliquaries and Illuminations” exhibit, traveling throughout New York since 2003. The exhibit and book were funded through grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts Community Regrant Program.
She has also received a fellowship from the AE Foundation. Her word-and-image works are in the Harry Ransom Collection, the University of Texas and other public and private collections. In 2007 her exhibit “The Stones & Bones of Delaware County” was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts grant and was exhibited in museums and galleries in Delaware County, New York and at the Hamilton Club Gallery, Paterson, New York (March-April 2008).
In 1992, with her late husband, Ernest M. Fishman, she founded Bright Hill Press & Literary Center of the Catskills; in 2017 she was commended for her work with Bright Hill in the Congressional Record; she retired as executive director in 2017 and now leads the Bright Hill Youth Workshops and serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Poetry Series.