Interview part 5: Teaching

"I knew I couldn’t support myself as a poet where I came from, which is a poor immigrant neighborhood in Paterson, New Jersey.  I had no way to support myself as a poet. I didn’t have the connections. I didn’t have Ivy-League friends. I didn’t have the courage. Yet, I was able to find things I loved to do, and I could support myself in doing them.  

When I first started teaching at Caldwell College, I discovered how much I loved teaching and how much pleasure it gave me to watch my students grow as writers and as people.

I always wrote during that time, whether it was late at night or during the day. I had moments even when I was jotting down things while driving the car (dangerously!), but sometimes I needed to get the words immediately on paper.  Out of the need to support myself, fortunately, I found something I loved doing in the process."

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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.