Workshops in the Distinguished Poets Series in Paterson

The Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ offers Saturday morning workshops in conjunction with the Distinguished Poets Reading Series. Participants have the opportunity to work major poets in a small group setting.

To register for Distinguished Poets Series Workshop, please go to https://www.poetrycenterpccc.com/workshops, print the registration form and send it with your check.

* FYI *
 Workshops for Jericho Brown, Richard Blanco and Mark Doty are now full.
Dante Di Stefano and Sam Sax workshops for March 14, 2020 have a few open slots as of this posting.
For questions and to confirm that workshops are still open to registration,
email sdesai@pccc.edu or call 973-684-6555.

Poem: I Tell People I've Let You Go

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's poem, "I Tell People I've Let You Go," first appeared on Louisiana Literature in 2018.

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's most recent books are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow  and the poetry collection, What Blooms in Winter. Her collection of poems paired with some of her paintings is The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets. Her new artist website is at MariaMazziottiGillan.com. Maria's poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

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'What Saves Us' at Lincoln Center

Martín Espada

Maria Gillan

Maria Gillan participated in a recent group reading at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center in New York City for the anthology, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump.

Martín Espada, the editor of the collection, was joined by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Denice Frohman, John Murillo, Willie Perdomo, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Nicholas Samaras, Patricia Smith, Lauren Schmidt, Afaa M. Weaver, Elisabet Velasquez, and others.

What Saves Us is an anthology of poems by a diversity of voices that speak of persecuted and scapegoated immigrants, bear witness to violence, testify to poverty and are voices of labor, the factory and the fields.

More than grievances, these poems build bridges, take back the language, resist the corruption of words themselves and assert our common humanity.

This event was presented in association with Northwestern University Press and Mil Mundos Books and was hosted by Rich Villar.

Patricia Smith

Photos by Leah Umansky

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan's most recent books are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow  and the poetry collection, What Blooms in Winter. Her collection of poems paired with some of her paintings is The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets. Her new artist website is at MariaMazziottiGillan.com. Maria's poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

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Maria Mazziotti Gillan Reading in NYC with Barbara Crooker

The Italian-American Writers Association presents a poetry reading with Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Barbara Crooker on Saturday, November 9 at 2 PM in New York City. The reading will be at Mulberry Street Public Library (10 Jersey Street, at the corner of Mulberry and Prince Streets in Greenwich Village).

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the winner of AWP’s 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature, Poets & Writers’ 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and the 2008 American Book Award for All That Lies Between Us. She has published 23 books and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ, and has been appointed a Bartle Professor at Binghamton University - SUNY and Professor Emerita of English and creative writing.

Barbara Crooker has written nine poetry collections; her latest is Some Glad Morning (Pitt Poetry Series). A 50-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and five-time nominee for Best of the Net, she was a 1997 Grammy Awards Finalist for her part in the audio version of the popular anthology, Grow Old Along With Me--The Best is Yet to Be (Papier Mache Press).
Her awards include the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships. Her work appears in a variety of anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, and The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Crooker is a poetry editor for the journal, Italian Americana. Her website is at www.barbaracrooker.com

What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump at Lincoln Center

The anthology, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, will be the centerpiece for a group poetry reading on Friday, November 8, 2019, at 7 pm David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center in New York City.

A chorus of powerful contemporary voices in U.S. poetry who have contributed to the book will be joining the book’s editor, Martín Espada - Denice Frohman, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, John Murillo, Willie Perdomo, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Nicholas Samaras, Patricia Smith, Lauren Schmidt, Afaa M. Weaver, Elisabet Velasquez, and many more.

What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump is an anthology of poems about much more than Trump. These are poems that either embody or express a sense of empathy or outrage, both prior to and following his election. There is an extraordinary diversity of voices. They speak of persecuted and scapegoated immigrants. They bear witness to violence, from police brutality against African Americans to mass shootings. They testify to poverty. There are voices of labor, in the factory or the fields. There are prophetic voices, imploring us to imagine the world we will leave behind in ruins lest we speak and act.

However, this is not merely a collection of grievances. The poets build bridges, taking back the language, resisting the demagogic corruption of words themselves, asserting our common humanity.

Martín Espada (Editor) has published almost twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His latest collection of poems is called Vivas to Those Who Have Failed. He is the recipient of the 2018 Ruth Lilly Prize, and the editor of the groundbreaking anthology Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination.

Books will be available for purchase after the reading.

This celebration of a seminal anthology of political poems is presented in association with Northwestern University Press and Mil Mundos Books and will be hosted by Rich Villar.

Event info and directions at lincolncenter.org