Maria Gillan Talks and Reads from 'When the Stars Were Still Visible'

A video from the Planet Poet-Words in Space podcast with Sharon Israel from January 2022 featuring Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet, teacher, artist, and the visionary founder of the renowned Poetry Center at the Passaic Community College in Paterson, N.J.. 

Here she speaks and reads from her new book, When the Stars Were Still Visible.

“… It is as if this book rose out of an alchemist’s compound comprised of Calabrian limestone and the cement of the back stoop on 17th Street in Paterson, New Jersey, where Mazziotti Gillan grew up. By the end of this poignant and resonant book, the poet accepts her double heritage with all its pain and obstacles and with all its beauty and grace.” 

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