Maria Gillan was interviewed by students during a visit, readings and workshops at Eastern Connecticut University. Several of those interview responses will be excerpted on this blog.
Do you ever fear that you will run out of childhood memories to write about?
I don’t think I’ll ever run out of memories to write about. Our lives are so layered, so full of the people we’ve loved and lost, and the times that we miss, the things we regret. The older I get, the more I remember, and I try to keep those details as though they were pressed flowers in a book. I use them in my poems to bring a time, a place, or a person back to life.
Do you believe in inspiration? If so, what people or experiences have impacted you the most?
Yes, I believe in inspiration, but I think that inspiration comes not because you ask it to, but because it wants to. I think you have to sit your behind in a chair and you have to allow yourself to write. And it doesn’t have to start out as a poem. It can start out as a journal entry or just random notes, and suddenly, before you realize it, the muse arrives and brings you a poem almost on a silver platter. It’s a wonderful thing about poetry - that it comes to you when you are least deserving.
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.
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