With the election just a few days away, we remind you that Maria Mazziotti Gillan is one of the esteemed poets included in the anthology, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, edited by MartÃn Espada. Though titled as a collection of poems in the Age of Trump, the poems are much more than poems about the time. These are poems that either embody or express a sense of empathy or outrage, both prior to and following Trump's election.This is the poetry of persecuted and scapegoated immigrants that bear witness to violence, police brutality and mass shootings in a school or synagogue. There are grievances but there are also poems that look to build bridges.
Maria's two poems, "Daddy We Called You" and "I Want to Write a Poem to Celebrate" as well as many of her poems fit into that immigrant experience.
There is tremendous diversity in the 92 voices in the book that includes these poets and many others - Juan Felipe Herrera, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forché, Patricia Smith, Robert Pinsky, Donald Hall, Elizabeth Alexander, Ocean Vuong, Marge Piercy, Yusef Komunyakaa, Brian Turner, and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Maria and her daughter, Jennifer Gillan, have also edited relevant anthologies often used in schools. Unsettling America is an Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American, and their collection Growing Up Ethnic in America is filled with Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021).
Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com
and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.
Maria and her daughter, Jennifer Gillan, have also edited relevant anthologies often used in schools. Unsettling America is an Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American, and their collection Growing Up Ethnic in America is filled with Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021).
Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com
and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.
