“My Father’s Tuba Disappeared” by Maria Gillan

www.library.uiuc.edu/archives/

From Maria Gillan’s new volume, The Place I Call Home, comes this poem that we can all identify with - things lost that we might have saved.

My Father’s Tuba Disappeared

My father’s tuba disappeared somewhere in my childhood,
though there is one picture of him holding the tuba
in his arms, wearing the gold epaulettes and fitted jacket
of his band uniform, proud in full sunlight, our tenement,
gray and seedy, in the background.

By the time I was old enough to notice, my father’s tuba
had vanished into some locked closet, only the picture
to remind us that once he marched in that band
through the streets of Paterson, playing
booming tuba music and smiling.

Only now do I remember the gleam of that tuba,
the pride in his straight shoulders, and regret
that I lost this part of his life long before he died
at ninety-two, all that time when I could have asked him
when he stopped playing the tuba and why and what
happened to the gold braid of his uniform.

Premiere of Documentary on Maria Gillan

Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 1 pm

“All That Lies Between Us”

A Documentary on the Life and Work of

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN

Join Maria and filmmakers Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse at the Theater at Passaic County Community College, 204 Ellison Street, Paterson, NJ. Parking available at PCCC lot at the corner of College Blvd and Church Street.

The screening will be followed by a reception, poetry reading, question-and-answer session with the filmmakers, and a book signing for Maria's brand new collection, The Place I Call Home
.

Trailer for "All That Lies Between Us" Documentary

Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 1 pm

“All That Lies Between Us”

A Documentary on the Life and Work of

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN

Join Maria and filmmakers Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse at the Theater at Passaic County Community College, 204 Ellison Street, Paterson, NJ. Parking will be available at the PCCC lot at the corner of College Blvd and Church Street.

The screening will be followed by a reception, poetry reading, question-and-answer session with the filmmakers and a book signing for Maria's brand new book, The Place I Call Home from NYQ Books.
For more info or for special parking, contact Smita Desai, 973-684-6555, sdesai@pccc.edu

Gillan Poem Is Featured Writing Prompt

Maria Gillan's poem, "My Fifth Grade Teacher Miss Spinelli," from her latest collection, The Place I Call Home, is the featured model poem for this month's Poets Online writing prompt.

The prompt concerns teachers and Maria's own Miss Spinelli is that teacher that we all want to have in school. She is one recalled as "wrapped in a veil of shimmering light." Her classroom was where "she carved out a space / where I could be safe." And, she read poems and encouraged a young girl to write.

Poets Online offers a monthly poetry writing prompt and the opportunity to submit it for online publication.  The site has been a source of inspiration since 1998.

A Poetry Writing Retreat with Maria Gillan and Laura Boss

WRITING YOUR WAY HOME

a poetry weekend intensive

at an English manor house in Mendham, New Jersey
December 14-16, 2012

 

Do you need a poetry retreat that will give you the space and time to focus totally on your writing? Does having that time in a serene and beautiful setting away from the pressures and distractions of daily life and in the company of like-minded others sound inspiring?

Join poets Laura Boss and Maria Mazzioti Gillan on Friday, December 14 through Sunday, the 16th, 2012 (Friday dinner through Sunday lunch) at the St. Marguerite's Retreat House in Mendham, NJ for a poetry intensive weekend.

Participants arrive before 6 PM on Friday evening, have dinner, settle into their rooms, and begin to retreat from the distractions of the world.That evening, participants will be led into creating new work. After each workshop, each participant will have the opportunity to read their work in the group.

After Saturday breakfast, participants will move into two groups for morning workshops, followed by free time for socializing and exploring the grounds. After lunch, writing workshops will take place, followed by time to write. Each participant will have a chance to sign up in advance with Maria or Laura for one-on-one help with revision.

After dinner on Saturday evening, participants will be invited to read their poems to the groups, and the faculty will lead another workshop session on how to get published.

After Sunday breakfast, a final writing workshop and concluding reading by participants will serve as the “closing ceremony” to this inspiring and productive weekend and lunch provides a final opportunity for socializing.

The leaders envision this weekend as a retreat from the noise and bustle of daily life and see this retreat as a spiritual and creative break from our usual lives. The setting certainly allows us to take some time to look at life in a new light, to listen for our own voices, and to create in stillness, in quiet, and in community. These are times of contemplation and welcoming the muse.

The workshops will concentrate on "writing your way home" and the way writing can save us, save our stories and our lives. Participants should bring papers, pens, and the willingness to take some risks. Please also bring previously-written work for one-on-one sessions and for the readings.

St. Marguerite's Retreat House in Mendham, New Jersey is an English manor house situated on 93 acres of wooded land with pathways that lend themselves to the serene contemplation of nature and nurturing of your creative spirit. The Retreat House is located at the convent of Saint John the Baptist, 82 West Main Street in Mendham, NJ.

The workshops, room, and meals are all included in the fee of $375.
This writing intensive is open to all writers over the age of 18.
Late registration will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Enrollment is limited.
NJ teachers may receive 15 professional development credits for attending.

For further information and to register, contact mariagillan@verizon.net or call  973-684-6555.

LAURA BOSS: Arms: New and Selected Poems and Flashlight

MARIA GILLAN:  What We Pass On: Collected Poems: 1980-2009 and The Place I Call Home

Maria Gillan Reading at Berkeley City College September 18

Tuesday, September 18 at Berkeley City College

Auditorium (Room 21) 2050 Center Street, Berkeley, CA

7 PM Free

Contact: Sharon 510-981-2800
The Place I Call Home is now available from Amazon.com and at booksellers

Maria Gillan's The Place I Call Home Is Available

Today if the official release of Maria Mazziotti Gillan's latest collection of poetry by NYQ Books™. The Place I Call Home covers the poetical landscape that Maria calls home. It is a universal haven built of enduring memories and peopled by loving family.

The collection lets us step into the complex emotions of an immigrant childhood in Paterson, New Jersey, in the 1950s, her long marriage, her husband’s devastating illness, and her subsequent widowhood.

There is the warmth of a sheltering family in which she grew up, the deep love binding her and her husband, the unfolding of her life as a mother and grandmother, and, most of all, her resilient spirit.

And she reminds us that even when the bud of youthful naïveté flowers into the reality of an uncaring universe, we are home again when we recall the protection we felt within the warm sanctuary of family. These poems are beautiful crystalline narratives, sometimes exuberant and sometimes poignant, but always unflinchingly true.

Cover Art:  THE READER, Gouache, acrylic 18 x 24 ©2006
by Linda Hillringhouse | www.hillringhouseart.com

“Just like a picture is worth a thousand words, a Maria Gillan poem evokes a thousand pictures. Her masterful book, The Place I Call Home is more about redeeming the past—fi nding grace in the details— than about nostalgia. Unlike Peter Pan who utters, ‘I won’t grow up,’ Gillan shows how she grew into a poet of Proust-like dimensions—memories are contained in objects. She has the courage to delve into her past—making it come alive again—not as a passive viewer but as an active participant. It’s like she has created a large tapestry of her life—every thread is important. I’m man enough to admit that some of these poems made me cry.”

       — Hal Sirowitz, Author of Mother Said, Former Poet Laureate of Queens, NY

"The Place I Call Home by Maria Mazziotti Gillan contains some of the most honest poems about marriage and family a reader is likely ever to come across. The craft is there, the well chosen word or phrase, but the power of these poems comes also from the truth in them that is moving and rare."

      — Marge Piercy

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is a recipient of 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 (Guernica Editions).

She is the Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community
College in Paterson, NJ, and editor of the Paterson Literary Review. She is also Director of the Creative Writing Program and Professor of Poetry at Binghamton University-SUNY.

She has already published thirteen books of poetry, including The Weather of Old Seasons (Cross-Cultural Communications), and Where I Come From, Things My Mother Told Me, Italian Women in Black Dresses, and What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009 (Guernica Editions). With her daughter Jennifer, she is co-editor of four anthologies: Unsettling America, Identity Lessons, and Growing Up Ethnic in America (Penguin/Putnam) and Italian-American Writers on New Jersey (Rutgers).

---

NYQ Books™ was established in 2009 as an imprint of The New York Quarterly Foundation, Inc. Its mission is to augment the New York Quarterly poetry magazine by providing an additional venue for poets who are already published in the magazine.

Prairie Schooner Review of Gillan's "The Place I Call Home"

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's latest book, The Place I Call Home (NYQ Books), was recently reviewed by Marianne Kunkel on the blog site for the literary journal Prairie Schooner.

...Gillan has made a career out of writing poems that express her affections for various family members (her parents, spouse, children, and grandchildren) and this book continues this tradition, offering straightforward portraits of loved ones that seem so sincere, vulnerable, and at times harsh despite their good intentions, they can make readers cry.

..in her poem “Why I Worry” to her young granddaughter, Gillan refreshes an overdone topic with an unexpected image of a crow: “I try to make her realize how beautiful she is… / but for now, the voice inside her, that crow, is louder than mine.”

...A Frank O’Hara-type poet who looks no further than personal circumstances for material for her poems, Gillan’s The Place leads with resilience, not shame.

Read the full review at prairieschooner.unl.edu

“All That Lies Between Us” A Documentary on Maria Mazziotti Gillan

On Saturday, October 6, you are invited to attend the free premiere of “All That Lies Between Us”, a documentary film on the the life and work of poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan.

Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 1 pm

“All That Lies Between Us”

A Documentary on the Life and Work of

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN

Join Maria and filmmakers Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse at the Theater at Passaic County Community College, 204 Ellison Street, Paterson, NJ. Parking available at PCCC lot at the corner of College Blvd and Church Street.

The screening will be followed by a reception, poetry reading, question-and-answer session and book signing for Maria's brand new collection from NYQ Books, titled The Place I Call Home.

For more info or for special parking, contact Smita Desai, 973-684-6555, sdesai@pccc.edu

Maria Gillan Readings This Month in California

Maria Mazziotti Gillan will be working her way along the California coast for 10 days doing readings for her latest collection of poems, The Place I Call Home.

Thursday, September 13
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
SOTÈRE TORREGIAN
Moe’s Books
2476 Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94704
7:30 PM Free
Contact: Joyce Jenkins 510-849-2087


Saturday, September 15
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
Book Passage’s Corte Madera store
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.,
Corte Madera, CA 94925
1:00 PM Free
Contact: Allison Bildsoe  415-927-0960 x 233


Saturday, September 15
Roy Mash (private event)


Sunday, September 16
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
A.D. WINANS
Petaluma Poetry Walk
Copperfields Books
140 Kentucky Street
Petaluma, CA 94952
3 PM Free
Contact: Store 707-762-0563


Tuesday, September 18
Berkeley City College, Berkeley
Auditorium (Room 21)
2050 Center Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
7 PM Free
Contact: Sharon 510-981-2800

Thursday, September 20
University of La Verne
1950 3rd St.
Laverne, CA 91750
9:40 AM – 11:00 AM
Contact: Ken Scambray 909-539-3511

Thursday, September 20
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
WANDA COLEMAN
AMELIE FRANK
Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd.,
Venice, CA 90291
7:30 PM $7Admission
$5 students/seniors/children
Members FREE
Contact: Event Manager
bbproposals@gmail.com

Friday, Sept. 21
OLGA GARCIA
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
PENNY PERRY
RAE ROSE
ROBT O'SULLIVAN SCHLEITH
JON WESICK
The Escondido Municipal Art Gallery
262 E. Grand Ave., Escondido, CA
7:30 PM Free
Contact: Store  760-480-4101


Saturday, Sept. 22
TRISH DUGGER
MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN
MAI LON GITTELSOHN
STEVE KOWIT
SERETTA MARTIN
Coronado Public Library
Winn Room
640 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
3 PM – 6 PM  Free
619-522-7390

You Can Go Home Again

It's not just Dr. Einstein who was boggled by those twin enigmas: time and space.

All of us are. Each of our lives is a journey through time. And many of us, in a lifetime, end up physically far from where we began.

Even those of us who don't move — like poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan, who has spent most of her life in Passaic County — are well aware of the larger, ever-changing world outside North Jersey.

From her here-and-now — Hawthorne, where she's lived on and off for 55 years – she contemplates her life in a new collection of poems, "The Place I Call Home" (New York Quarterly Books).

"I'm talking about what I've learned about what it means to live a life, and to be human, and to love people and lose them," says Gillan, 72, founder of The Poetry Center, a department of Passaic County Community College.

continue reading  http://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/books/168573956_For_Paterson-bred_poet__you_can_go_home_again.html

Poetry Flash presents Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Sotère Torregian

Poetry Flash presents Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Sotère Torregian, at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, on September 13 at 7:30.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan's new book of poems is The Place I Call Home.

Poet Hal Sirowitz says of the volume, "Her masterful book, The Place I Call Home, is more about redeeming the past—finding grace in the details—than about nostalgia.…It's like she has created a large tapestry of her life—every thread is important. I'm man enough to admit that some of these poems made me cry."

She has published fourteen books of poetry, including Italian Women in Black Dresses and What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009. The founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey and editor of the Paterson Literary Review, her honors include a 2008 American Book Award and a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers.

Sotère Torregian's new book of poems is On the Planet Without Visa. Anne Waldman calls him, "One of our most radically original poets."


Sotère Torregian was born in Newark, of Ethiopian, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, and Moorish ancestry. He has been affiliated with French Surrealist poets and associated with the New York School of poets and painters. He has published eight books of poetry. Teorregian was also one of the founders of the Afro-American Studies program at Stanford University in 1969.

Maria Gillan Joins Others in a celebration of Woody Guthrie

Maria Mazziotti Gillan, director of Paterson's Poetry Center and recipient of the American Book Award and Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award will be one of the poets, musicians, fans, and an award-winning chef to celebrate American folk music legend Woody Guthrie in this 100th anniversary year of his birth. Maria's brand new book, The Place I Call Home (NYQ Books), will be for sale and signature.

On Saturday, September 8 at 1 p.m. at Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church (271 Lincoln Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ, at West End Avenue) this celebration will feature an open mic session welcoming any poets to offer readings on Woody's themes of social, political, and spiritual justice. Drop-in musicians are also invited to perform. Attendees are encouraged to bring nonperishable food to support the food bank work of the church. A free-will offering will also aid Disaster Response Services of World Renew (formerly CRWRC) in light of drought issues in the Mid-West. The event follows area poets' and musicians' rousing Fats Domino and Elvis Presley celebrations held previously at the same church.

Woody Guthrie wrote nearly 3,000 songs. His music influenced his son Arlo, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, the Weavers, and countless other performers.

The distinguished lineup of poets scheduled to appear includes:

Laura Boss of Guttenberg, NJ, editor of Lips literary magazine and first-place winner in the Poetry Society of America contest.

Charles H. Johnson of Hillsborough, NJ, winner of the New Jersey Poets Prize and the Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence.

Laine Sutton Johnson of Hillsborough, NJ, published poet and recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Award as outstanding speech and theater teacher.

James Gwyn of Clifton, first prize winner in the Allen Ginsberg poetry contest and recipient of five Pushcart Prize nominations.

Francesca Maxime of Brooklyn, NY, TV and radio journalist and published poet whose book of poetry, Rooted, is nearing release from NYQ Books.

The Clifton-based Victoria Warne Band will perform the beloved "This Land Is Your Land" and other songs by Guthrie.

Celebrity Chef Jesse Jones of Chef Jesse Concepts from South Orange will visit to share some of his special chili and other toppings for the Woody Guthrie favorite -- Nathan's hot dogs! The All-American food spread is provided at no charge.