Poem: My Mother Was a Brilliant Cook

As The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor is now "retired" and repeating past almanac entries, Maria Mazziotti Gillan's poem, "My Mother Was a Brilliant Cook," from her collection What Blooms in Winter (NYQ Books, 2016) was again featured today in their newsletter.

My Mother Was a Brilliant Cook

The first time my mother went out
to eat was on her 25th wedding anniversary
at Scordato’s in Paterson, and the second time
was for her 50th anniversary
at the Iron Kettle House in Wyckoff.

My mother said, “I could have cooked
this meal better myself.”
But I knew she was happy,
though she would have never admitted it.

Once my mother came to Paterson
from Italy in steerage,
she was content to stay there.
She was a brilliant cook,
and didn’t need to go to restaurants.
She loved her house, poor as it was,
and never stayed in a motel or took a vacation
or wanted to.

She was content to offer platter after platter
of food to her family gathered
in her basement kitchen, and to watch them
laughing and talking together,
while she stood behind them
and smiled.

by Maria Mazziotti Gillian

You can hear Keillor's reading on the website.

---

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's website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

---

Couplet Quarterly Poetry Reading Will Feature Maria Gillan

The Couplet reading series is produced, curated, and hosted by poet Leah Umansky and is sponsored by Poets & Writers. It features emerging and established poets.

This 11ith anniversary edition of Couplet can be viewed in person at KGB Bar's Red Room, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY, or on Zoom on October 1, 2022 from 5-7pm. 

Featured poets include:

Virginia Konchan (zoom) is the author of four poetry collections, including Bel Canto (Carnegie Mellon, 2022) and Hallelujah Time (Véhicule Press, 2021), and a short story collection, Anatomical Gift. Coeditor of Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems (University of Akron Press, 2023), her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Yale Review, and The Believer.

Zeina Hashem Beck (zoom) is a Lebanese poet. Her third full-length poetry collection, O, has been recently released by Penguin Books in July 2022. Her collection Louder than Hearts won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The New York Times, Poetry, Ploughshares, World Literature Today, the Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. . After a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai, Zeina recently moved to California. www.zeinahashembeck.com

Nkosi Nkululeko's work is published in ANMLY, Chess Life Online, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Oxford Poetry, The Nation, Poetry Northwest, and more. He is anthologized in the Best American Poetry 2018, Bettering American Vol. 3, and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry. Nkosi is a poetry, music, and chess instructor from Harlem!

Megan Fernandes has been published in The New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Common, The Boston Review, among many others. Her most recent book of poetry GOOD BOYS was published in 2020 with Tin House and her forthcoming book, also with Tin House, is called I DO EVERYTHING I'M TOLD and will be published in Summer 2023.

Nathan McClain is the author of two collections of poetry -- Previously Owned (2022) and Scale (2017) -- both from Four Way Books. A Cave Canem fellow, he teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan (zoom) is the winner of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP, the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us. She is the Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, editor of the Paterson Literary Review, and Professor Emerita in creative writing at Binghamton University—SUNY.

She has published 23 books, including her latest book, 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's website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

To register for the event, go to eventbrite.com/e/couplet-quarterly-poetry-reading...

click the image to enlarge

José Antonio Rodríguez

Mark Roemisch

José A. Rodríguez is an amazing poet who had the opportunity to work with when he was a graduate student and I was teaching at SUNY-Binghamton. 

José is a poet, memoirist, and translator. His latest books are This American Autopsy (poems) and the memoir House Built on Ashes. He teaches writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

He will be reading in the Distinguished Poets Series at The Poetry Center at PCCC on December 3, 2022. He will also be the judge for the 2023 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Prize. 

One of his new poems, "Tender," was published in the August 22 issue of The New Yorker. 

along with audio of him reading the poem. See newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/22/tender

His website is www.jarodriguez.org

---

---

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's new 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's website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

The Inaugural Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award

Maria Gillan was the final judge for the inaugural Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award. Edwin Romond of Wind Gap, PA is the inaugural award winner. Romond’s manuscript, Man at the Railing, will be published in Spring 2023 by NYQ Books. The award also includes a $5,000 prize, 25 author copies and a featured reading.

Edwin Romond

Maria Mazziotti Gillan was a longtime friend of Laura Boss. “Because all the finalist manuscripts were beautiful and moving in different ways, this was a very difficult choice to make. I finally selected Edwin’s manuscript because the poems reminded me of Laura. After I chose the manuscript and found out whose manuscript it was, I felt that I was right because I remembered that he is a poet whose work Laura loved and admired and I felt that my choice would have made Laura very happy."

Her son, Barry Boss, who created the Laura Boss Poetry Foundation in her memory said “I can think of no more fitting tribute to my mother than the work of the Foundation.  In her last days in hospice, the notion that her legacy would live on through the continued publication of Lips and the Narrative Poetry Award brought her comfort and joy during a difficult time. She would have loved Man at the Railing and been impressed with all of the finalists’ manuscripts.”

For a list of the five finalists and information on the Foundation, the award, and Lips poetry magazine, see laurabosspoetryfoundation.org

---

---

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's new 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 which pairs her poems with her paintings. Maria's artist's website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.

Maria Gillan Featured Reader for Poetry at the Barn August 27

Maria Gillan will be the featured poet reading virtually for the next virtual POETRY at the BARN: Home Edition on Saturday, August 27th at 7pm.

If you would like to read in the open mic after the reading, please send an email with your full name in the subject line to RMAApoetry@yahoo.com

The series is hosted by Karen Lee Ramos and is sponsored by the Ringwood Manor Association of the Arts (RMAA), a non-profit, non-political organization. Its home is the "Barn" in historic Ringwood State Park.  

Follow them on Facebook for more readings and workshops.

This event is free and open to all.

   Click this link 8/27 at 7pm to join the Zoom Cloud HD Video Meeting

---

---

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's new 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 which pairs her poems with her paintings. Maria's artist's website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.