Interview Part 3: Women as Poets

"I had a cousin that was very conservative, and he thought that no woman could succeed as a poet. Of course, he also thought no poor person could succeed as a poet because he said it was the most impractical ambition he’d ever heard. 

When he said that, it made me want to prove him wrong. Of course, I understood that as a woman and as a poet I would have to forge my own way as I had no class connections and no Ivy League degree. I knew I would have to find a way to make my work heard, but I would also have to find some way to support myself while I did that."

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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.