Poem: Everything We Don’t Want Them to Know

Everything We Don’t Want Them to Know

by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

At eleven, my granddaughter looks like my daughter

did, that slender body, that thin face, the grace

with which she moves. When she visits, she sits

with my daughter; they have hot chocolate together

and talk. The way my granddaughter moves her hands,

the concentration with which she does everything,

knocks me back to the time when I sat with my daughter

at this table and we talked and I watched the grace

with which she moved her hands, the delicate way

she lifted the heavy hair back behind her ear.

My daughter is grown now, married

in a fairy-tale wedding, divorced, something inside

her broken, healing slowly. I look at my granddaughter

and I want to save her, as I was not able

to save my daughter. Nothing is that simple,

all our plans, carefully made, thrown into a cracked

pile by the way love betrays us.

“Everything We Don’t Want Them to Know” by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, from What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009, appeared on The Writer’s Almanac in 2015 and was also possted in January 2026 on the new The Writer's Almanac on Substack.

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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.

Jan Beatty Virtual Poetry Workshop and Reading January 10

On Saturday, January 10, 2026, poet Jan Beatty will conduct a virtual workshop followed by a reading as part of the Poetry Center at PCCC's Distinguished Poets Series.

Workshops via Zoom will run from 1 PM – 2:30 PM (EST) and be followed by the poet’s reading from 2:30 PM – 3 PM (ET). Poetry Center readings are always free and open to the public. Registration is required for all workshops with a fee of $20. ​You can check registration availability by emailing Cynthia Pagan at the Poetry Center.

Jan Beatty has authored eight collections of poetry and a celebrated memoir. Her eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2024. Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Other recent books include The Body Wars and Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, which won the Paterson Poetry Prize.

Now a full-time academic, she has worked as a waitress, abortion counselor, and social worker in maximum-security prisons. Jan Jan Beatty has taught poetry for over twenty-five years at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Carlow University. As a poet, she is known for her raw, unflinching exploration of class, the body, and her Pittsburgh roots.

Her website is janbeatty.com

Poetry Center readings are recorded and archived later for viewing on the Poetry Center’s YouTube channel.

View the reading live or when it is archived

Maria Gillan and Jan Beatty

The Poetry Center offers poetry writing workshops in-person and virtually in conjunction with the Distinguished Poets Reading Series. Over the years, distinguished poets have included poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Inaugural poets and others of national and international reputation, such as Allen Ginsberg, William Stafford, Amiri Baraka, Lucille Clifton, Stanley Kunitz, Billy Collins, Marge Piercy, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Kim Addonizio, Billy Collins, Dorianne Laux, Jan Beatty, Robert Sward, Patricia Smith, Martín Espada, Toi Derricotte and Richard Blanco.

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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.

Italian Diaspora Studies Writing Seminar 2026

The Italian Diaspora Studies Writing Seminar for 2026 will be held in Cetraro (CS), Calabria, Italy, May 18-24, 2026. Maria Mazziotti Gillan has taught in this program several times and highly recommends the program and experience. Maria says, "It’s a wonderful place to write and visit, and it should be an excellent workshop. I hope you all will think about going."

This residential writing seminar will be held at the Grand Hotel San Michele, located in Cetraro (CS), on the Northern Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, May 18-24, 2026. This program is a collaborative project with the Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research at Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.

The purpose of the seminar is to provide participants with a unique experience. A select group of established writers and motivated, aspiring writers, not only of Italian descent, will gather at the beautiful and peaceful Grand Hotel San Michele to learn about the Italian diaspora and focus on writing while exchanging ideas, memories, and emotions with a vibrant group of peers.

Cetraro is a small town, a borgo, rich in history and natural beauty, with a stunning view of the coast. The historic Grand Hotel San Michele is recognized as one of the best in the Calabrian region. Because of the beauty and solitude of its mountain-top location, it is an ideal place to learn, write, reflect, relax, and enjoy stimulating conversation with a committed group of participants. The property includes a large farm, golf course, swimming pool, and a private beach reachable by elevator down through the cliffside. The hotel’s restaurant uses its own farm-grown products, including vegetables, fruit, olive oil, and wine. The cuisine is of high quality, local, seasonal and organic.

For full information, see IDSWS 2026-Program — Italian Diaspora Studies  

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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.

How to Find the Courage to Tell Your Stories

Always great to see your book being used as a text in a course. 

Here, Marie Gillan’s craft book, Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories on the bookstore shelf for a course at Eastern Connecticut State University.

About this book, Maria has said: 

What I hope to accomplish in this book is to give writing prompts that will help you to get past all the outside influences that keep you from believing in yourself and in your ability to write. In order to write, you need to get rid of notions about language, poetic form, and esoteric subject matter - all the things that the poetry police have told you are essential if you are to write. I wanted to start from a different place, a place controlled by instinct rather than by intelligence. Revision, the shaping and honing of the poem, should come later, and, in revising, care always needs to be taken to retain the vitality and electricity of the poem. Anyone can learn to craft a capable poem, but it is the poems that retain that initial vitality that we remember; these are the poems that teach us how to be human.

 

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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.