March 13, 2024

Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award Reading March 16


Clockwise from top left: Levine, Mills, Hyland, Webb, Kennedy-Nolle, Lubarsky


The Winner & Finalists Reading and Book Launch for the 2023 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award will be held at the Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ on Saturday, March 16, 2024. The winner and finalists are all scheduled to read at this event. 

The winner is Miriam Levine of Concord, NH. Her collection, Forget About Sleep, was published this month by NYQ Books as part of the award. 

The five finalists and their manuscript titles are Emily Hyland, Divorced Business Partners;  Nancy Lubarsky, Truth to the Rumors; Stephen S. Mills, We Will Always Be Perverts; Sharon Kennedy-Nolle, Not Waving, and Sean Webb, Disappointment Awaits.

Miriam Levine's Forget about Sleep portrays the gifts and perils of aging as she remembers lost lovers, friends, and beloved family, and it celebrates treasured places and the near and dear still alive. These bold poems of sensual and spiritual life move from gritty Northern New Jersey to New England and Florida, from interior spaces to landscapes and the gardens she tends.


Miriam Levine is the author of five previous books of poetry and three books of prose. Her honors include the Autumn House Poetry Prize. A fellow of the NEA, and grantee of the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, Levine is Professor emerita at Framingham State University and lives in Florida and New Hampshire. You may find more information about her work at miriamlevine.com


March 10, 2024

April In-person Poetry Weekend Intensive with Maria Gillan and Kevin Carey



There will be an in-person Poetry Weekend Intensive with Maria Gillan and Kevin Carey April 19 – 21, 2024 at Mendham, NJ.  

Held at an English Manor House in Mendham, St Marguerite’s Retreat House is 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.

Begins 5 p.m. Friday, April 19 and ends 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21, 2024

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 the willingness to take risks. Please also bring previously-written work for one-on-one
critiquing sessions and for group readings.

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.



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 Shadowand 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.

Kevin Carey is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University. He has published
three books of poetry, The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) which was an Honor book for the Paterson Literary Prize, and Set in Stone (2020) all from CavanKerry Press. He
has co-directed & co-produced two documentaries about poets, All That Lies Between Us and
Unburying Malcolm Miller.  see kevincareywriter.com



March 06, 2024

Poems from Italy, Poesie dall'Italia




Cover art: At the Ionian Sea by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is one of the most significant voices of contemporary Italian American poetry, capable of interpreting with passion and disenchantment the complex emotional situation of those who live their identity in the balance between Italy and the United States. Thanks to this Italian translation, Gillan tells her story in Poems from Italy in the two languages ​​in that she loves. With a singular narrative figure that characterizes the verses, we encounter the country of her parents and those who populated Paterson and the ethnic neighborhood where she grew up in working-class New Jersey in the 1950s. 

Far from the nostalgic re-enactment of a mythical Italy, these reflections - at times overwhelmed by the magical sensation of being one step away from some unexpected epiphany - take stock with extraordinary energy and profound tenderness on what it means today to be Italian in America and American in Italy. 

Winner of the 2008 American Book Award with her collection All That Lies Between Us, Gillan founded and directs the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey. 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 Shadowand the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings. She is the Editor of the prestigious Paterson Literary Review, which she founded in 1979, Bartle Professor and Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University-SUNY. Maria has also dedicated herself to painting for many years. She lives in Hawthorne, New Jersey, in a house full of paintings and colors. Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com

Carla Francellini is a professor of Anglo-American Literature and Literary Translation at the Department of Philology and Criticism of Ancient and Modern Literature at the University of Siena. In her research, she deals with Italian-American literature and has published numerous essays and articles both in Italy and abroad. She is the editor and translator of Uè Paisà. and she founded the Miraggi (Artemide) series in 2019, dedicated to Italian-American literature. She is the author of the monograph Visible / Invisible, Forays into contemporary Italian American fiction (2018), co-editor of the Re-Mapping Italian America volumes. Places, Cultures, Identities (2018) and Mother Cabrini. and Reflections on the Migrations of Yesterday and Today (2023).

February 29, 2024

Maria Gillan, Editor of the Paterson Literary Review Recommends



Maria Mazziotti Gillan, editor of the Paterson Literary Review, spoke to Poets & Writers magazine as part of their Agents & Editors Recommend series. 

"Since 1979, when I first started editing the Paterson Literary Review, I have always had a very clear picture of the kind of writing I want to publish in my journal.

I want a writer who is not afraid to go out on a limb or to tell the truth, a writer who does not hide behind erudite language or use a hundred-dollar word when a one-dollar word will do. I want clarity and the ability to confront what it means to be human and to live in the moment. 

Whether it’s a poem, short story, or a memoir piece, I’m looking for the same things: Writers who are brave and write for everybody—not just for readers from elite academic institutions. Moving and powerful work that makes me think about what it means to be truly alive in the world. Writers who are willing to be vulnerable, to let us see the underside of their lives—the good, bad, and ugly. I want them to invite us into the universe inside them so we can in turn better understand ourselves and the world we live in.

I get thousands of submissions, but the ones that make the hair on my arms stand up are the ones I publish."



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 Shadowand 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.

February 16, 2024

Suzanne Cleary Virtual Poetry Reading February 17



The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College presents a virtual Poetry Reading via Zoom by Suzanne Cleary on Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 2:30 PM – 3 PM (EST) as part of its Distinguished Poets Series.. 

Suzanne Cleary’s most recent poetry books are Crude Angel, (2018, BkMk Press) and Beauty Mark (2013, BkMk Press). 

Recipient of a Pushcart Prize, her other awards include the John Ciardi Prize, the Cecil Hemley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, the Troubadour International Poetry Prize (2nd Prize), and fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo. Her poems appear on PBS Newshour.org and PoetryDaily, in anthologies including Best American Poetry and The Forward Book of Poetry 2022, and in journals including The Atlantic, Southern Review, Poetry International, and Poetry London

A member of the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society, she teaches at the Tunbridge Wells Poetry Festival, Tunbridge Wells, UK. She also teaches as Core Faculty in the Converse University MFA in Creative Writing Program and is seeking a publisher for her new book manuscript. 

You may attend the reading virtually live at 2:30 pm via youtube.com/live/UGxjHN7fO0E and find the archived reading later on the Poetry Center's YouTube channel