Afaa M. Weaver Paterson Poetry Prize Reading Saturday April 5

On Saturday, April 5, 2025, Paterson Poetry Prize 2024 Winner Afaa M. Weaver will give a reading and workshop at the Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ.

Afaa will also conduct a poetry workshop in the morning before his reading. Workshop registration is required along with a $20 fee. Registration information is available at poetrycenterpccc.com/workshops. Check on registration availability by emailing Cynthia Pagan at the Poetry Center. The poetry reading will begin at 1 pm and is free and open to the public. Click for directions and parking information

Afaa M. Weaver's poetry collection, A Fire in the Hills (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA) was selected by Maria Gillan who said, "Afaa M. Weaver’s book, sparks a fire in the heart. Weaver has been writing heart-wrenching, honest poems, and this book continues his tradition of making music out of sorrow and pain and finding the sweetness hidden within our daily lives.”

"The splendid A Fire in the Hills holds lyrical inventories, telepathic persona poems, "southern chants for spells," "spinning top hairdos," and invented forms. Afaa Weaver can write any kind of poem you can imagine. He is our black nonconforming formalist breaking free of form to shape a spirit of witness. He is both our sage bear-poet of wisdom and our wily fox-poet of mischief. He's been writing long enough to resist all classifications except that of Master Poet." - --Terrance Hayes

Afaa M. Weaver’s most recent collection of poetry is A Fire in the Hills. His awards include the Wallace Stevens, Kingsley Tufts, and St. Botolph’s 2019 Distinguished Artist, as well as medals from the Beijing Writers Association, and Taiwan’s Artists and Writers Association. Afaa is a Guggenheim fellow, a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets, a professor emeritus at Simmons University, and guest MFA faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. His papers are held in the Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University. With his wife Kristen Skedgell, Afaa lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York.

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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.

Paterson Poetry Prize Reading With Afaa M. Weaver April 5

On Saturday, April 5, 2025, Paterson Poetry Prize 2024 Winner Afaa M. Weaver will give a reading at the Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ.

Afaa will also conduct a poetry workshop in the morning before his reading. Workshop registration is required along with a $20 fee. Registration information is available at poetrycenterpccc.com/workshops. Check on registration availability by emailing Cynthia Pagan at the Poetry Center.

Afaa M. Weaver's poetry collection, A Fire in the Hills (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA) was selected by Maria Gillan who said, "Afaa M. Weaver’s book, sparks a fire in the heart. Weaver has been writing heart-wrenching, honest poems, and this book continues his tradition of making music out of sorrow and pain and finding the sweetness hidden within our daily lives.”

Afaa M. Weaver’s most recent collection of poetry is A Fire in the Hills. His awards include the Wallace Stevens, Kingsley Tufts, and St. Botolph’s 2019 Distinguished Artist, as well as medals from the Beijing Writers Association, and Taiwan’s Artists and Writers Association. Afaa is a Guggenheim fellow, a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets, a professor emeritus at Simmons University, and guest MFA faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. His papers are held in the Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University. With his wife Kristen Skedgell, Afaa lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York.

The co-winner of the prize in 2024 is Mahogany L. Browne, who is unable to attend this event.
She is a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, & UCross. Browne’s books include Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for a play by Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne currently tours Chrome Valley (highlighted in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times) and is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded by Marymount Manhattan College in 2024, is the inaugural poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center, and is at work on her first adult fiction and fourth YA novel-in-verse in Brooklyn, NY.

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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.

Poetry Weekend Intensive May 16-18

WRITING YOUR WAY HOME: A POETRY WEEKEND INTENSIVE
with award-winning poets, Maria Mazziotti Gillan & Kevin Carey
May 16̶ 18, 2025
at an English Manor House in Mendham, New Jersey

The purpose of this retreat is to give poets the space and time to focus on their writing away from the pressures and distractions of everyday life. Participants will draft poems in the workshops and should bring paper or a notebook, pens, and the willingness to take risks. Please also bring previously-written work for one-on-one critiquing sessions and for group readings.

St Marguerite’s Retreat House, located in Mendham, NJ — is situated on 93 acres of wooded land with pathways for exploring the property. This serene, beautiful setting is perfect for contemplating nature and nurturing the creative spirit.

This poetry weekend intensive is open to all writers over the age of 18.
Request by Retreat House: All Participants must have been inoculated and present proof of vaccination. (Please send copy of your vaccination card with  registration form).

Time: Begins 5 p.m. Friday, May 16, 2025 and ends 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18, 2025

At this retreat, poets will find:
• support and encouragement;
• stimulating writing exercises/prompts leading to the creation of new work;
• workshop leaders who are actively engaged in the writing life;
• opportunities to read their work aloud to the group;
• a community of writers and networking opportunities.
Fifteen professional development credits granted.

Poetry Weekend Intensive Schedule:
➢ Friday, May 16, 2025: Please arrive by 5 PM and settle into your rooms.
After dinner, we will break into two groups (about 12 to 15 in each), where
we will have the opportunity to write poetry and share the work.
➢ Saturday, May 17, 2025: After breakfast, we will break into two groups for
morning workshops. Lunch will be served, followed by one afternoon
workshop and either free time or a critiquing session with the poet faculty.
Interested participants can sign up in advance (at the retreat house) and may
bring previously written, typed work for feedback.
After dinner, there will be an additional workshop.
* On Friday and Saturday evenings, the two groups will come together and
we will share our work—either something written on the weekend or
previously.
➢ Sunday, May 18, 2025: Breakfast followed by a workshop. A final reading by
participants will serve as the “closing ceremony” to what we hope will be an
inspiring and productive weekend. Lunch will offer another opportunity for
socializing and networking.

We envision this intensive as a journey, allowing us to look at things differently,
listen to our own inner voice, and create in stillness and community. This is an
opportunity to retreat from the noise and busyness of everyday life and invite the
muse to inspire us. In the workshops, we will capture our stories and memories on
paper, and discover how poetry can, so often, save our lives.

Click here to download registration form, information and fees 

The Old Woman Who Lives in My Belly

Maria Gillan's craft book, Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories, was recently listed as the #2 book for the Best Poetry Writing Books.

 

One idea that Maria talks about is the "old woman who lives in [her] belly." In a conversation about the book, Maria explains a bit more about that old woman.

When I speak of the “old woman who lives in my belly,”and encourage my students to find that feature inside themselves, I’m referring to the instinctual part of myself that is sometimes suppressed by the intellectual part that may be trying to control what we write.

Tapping into the instinctual part of ourselves allows us to get to the truth of our lives and gives us courage and let’s just go to places we don’t believe we can go or are afraid to go. 

 

I feel that I only realized this and really learned to trust that voice when I was about 40 and my first book was published. I trace this point of view back to graduate school when a professor said to me that it was in a poem about my father that I had found the story I had to tell. That moment was as if a lightbulb went on and I started to believe that there might be a space in the world for poems written by a lower-class, Italian American daughter of immigrants, poems written by a wife, mother, granddaughter, and later grandmother. 

 

Later I realized that I could help others who also had come from poor backgrounds or who felt for whatever reason that theirs was not a voice anyone wanted to hear.  I realized that by sharing my stories I could form a bridge between myself and other people and let them could walk back into their own past and find their stories. 

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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.

Beth Ann Fennelly Virtual Workshop and Reading March 15

Beth Ann Fennelly has published three poetry books: Open House, Tender Hooks, and Unmentionables, all with W. W. Norton. 

She is also the author of 3 books of prose: Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs; Great With Child: Letters to a Young Mother, a collection of essays; and The Tilted World, a novel co-authored with her husband Tom Franklin. 

Beth Ann’s poetry has been in over fifty anthologies, including Best American Poetry, The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Poets of the New Century, and The Penguin Book of the Sonnet. 

She teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi, where she was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Link for her free live reading at 2:30 pm ET & the recorded reading later
 youtube.com/live/3Wj2SoWXsks

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College offers readings and workshops as part of its Distinguished Poets Series. Following their workshop, poets will give a free reading that is open to the public. These readings are recorded and archived for viewing on the Poetry Center’s YouTube channel.

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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.