Dinner With Maria

New Jersey Monthly magazine recently published an article on "Where Real Italians Eat" asking prominent New Jersey Italian celebrities to tell them where they like to eat.


Maria Mazziotti Gillan, author of 12 books of poetry, including Italian Women In Black Dresses, picked the ViVi Ristorante in her hometown of Hawthorne.

"I love the ambience and décor, which seem to me to be very Italian, with the antique chandeliers and the bright wall colors. Also I find their food fresh and lightly seasoned, very much like the food you can get in Italy. My favorite dish is the lobster ravioli, which I find to be very delicately seasoned and mouthwatering. It’s hard to choose because I also love their salmon oreganata, which is baked and seasoned with bread crumbs. No one in Italy rushes through eating. Savoring a meal is something I can do at ViVi’s and pretend I’m in Italy.”

"Arturo" by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Listen to Maria read "Arturo," a poem about her father.


Arturo

I told everyone
your name was Arthur,
tried to turn you
into the imaginary father
in the three-piece suit
that I wanted instead of my own.
I changed my name to Marie,
hoping no one would notice
my face with its dark Italian eyes.

Arturo, I send you this message
from my younger self, that fool
who needed to deny
the words
(Wop! Guinea! Greaseball!)
slung like curved spears,
the anguish of sandwiches
made from spinach and oil;
the roasted peppers on homemade bread,
the rice pies of Easter.

Today, I watch you,
clean as a cherub,
your ruddy face shining,
closed by your growing deafness
in a world where my words
cannot touch you.

At 80, you still worship
Roosevelt and JFK,
read the newspaper carefully,
know with a quick shrewdness
the details of revolutions and dictators,
the cause and effect of all wars,
no matter how small.
Only your legs betray you
as you limp from pillar to pillar,
yet your convictions remain
as strong now as they were at 20.
For the children, you carry chocolates
wrapped in goldfoil
and find for them always
your crooked grin and a $5 bill.

I smile when I think of you.
Listen, America,
this is my father, Arturo,
and I am his daughter, Maria.
Do not call me Marie.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan

© 1995 from Where I Come From

Gillan to Read in Chicago

Coffee House Press Presents: Working Words: Working Class Writers Read

Location: The Book Cellar, 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago IL 60625

Thursday, March 1, 2012, 7 pm

Cost: FREE


Website: http://bookcellarinc.com


Authors included in the award-winning Coffee House Press anthology, Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams, edited by M. L. Liebler will read from the book. The readers will include Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Laura Boss, M. L. Liebler, Carlos Cumpian, Cynthia , Jim Daniels and many surprise contributors.

Authors included in the book range from Philip Levine to Bob Dylan, Michael Moore, John Sayles, Diane di Prima, Wanda Coleman and others.

Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards 2012

Allen Ginsberg at the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ, 1966

The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards are sponsored by The Poetry Center at PCCC, and honor Paterson poet Allen Ginsberg’s contribution to American Literature.

The first prize winner will receive $1,000; second, $200; and third $100.

The entry fee of $18 covers the cost of a subscription to The Paterson Literary Review, in which the winning poems will be published. The submissions deadline is April 1.

Winners will be asked to participate in a reading to take place in Paterson’s Historic District.

For guidelines and an entry form, go to www.pccc.edu/poetry or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
Maria Mazziotti Gillan,
Executive Director,
Poetry Center,
Passaic County Community College,
One College Boulevard,
Paterson, N.J. 07505-1179.

Be sure to mark envelope with the contest name.

Paterson Literary Review Award for Lifetime Service to Literature

The Poetry Center at PCCC has announced that Grace Cavalieri, Stanley Barkan, Jim Haba and Vivian Shipley are the recipients of the 2011 Paterson Literary Review Award for Lifetime Service to Literature.

“Each of the winners has dedicated many years to serving the needs of writers and to bringing other writers to national and international attention. In doing so, each has contributed greatly to literature and enriched the lives of readers everywhere,” said Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director of the Poetry Center.

For bios and more info go to www.pccc.edu/poetry.

Barkan

Cavalieri

Shipley

Haba

2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awards

One of the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awards winners is Maria Mazziotti Gillan. The Writers for Writers Award recognizes authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan, a Paterson native and award-winning poet, has been the executive director of the The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College since it was established in 1980.

Over the years, the Poetry Center has been accorded international recognition for many of its activities including the Distinguished Poets Series, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Paterson Fiction Prize, and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. The annual Paterson Literary Review, the monthly New Jersey Poetry Calendar and the New Jersey Poetry Resource Book are also published by the Poetry Center.

For more than 30 years, Maria has powered the Center's mission to provide poetry events and workshops to a diverse audience and to provide opportunities for poets through offering contests, awards, a journal, anthologies, reference materials, and conferences.

Also receiving a Writers for Writers award at  the event were John Grisham, and Elizabeth Nunez. The Editor’s Award was presented to Jonathan Galassi in recognition of a book editor who has made an outstanding contribution to the publication of poetry or literary prose over a sustained period of time.

The Poets & Writers’ Annual Dinner raised more than $475,000 to support Poets & Writers' programs serving creative writers. The event was chaired by Michael Morrison, U.S. General Books and Canada, HarperCollins Publishers, and Paul Rudnick served as master of ceremonies.