It is 2026 and I have been running the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College since I founded it in 1979. I loved every minute of it!
I feel that all of you have been on this journey with me for these 46 years. You have supported it and have been a part of it by attending readings and workshops, and by submitting work for our awards and to the Paterson Literary Review (PLR). I am saddened that I have had to come to the decision to retire from the Poetry Center directorship. I did not feel that I could leave without letting you all know how much you have meant to me, and how big a part of my life you have become. We have shared our mutual love of poetry. I hope that I have helped many of you write your own poems in spaces where it is safe to be part of a tremendous group of poetry lovers.
The last issue of the Paterson Literary Review that I edited will be published in the summer of 2026. Dr. Christine Redman-Waldeyer will be the new director of the Poetry Center. A Full Professor of English at Passaic County Community College, she is the author of five poetry collections, a writing textbook, and the editor of a published anthology, as well as being the founding Editor of the Adanna Literary Journal. She will be overseeing the Allen Ginsberg poetry contest, the book awards, and PLR, and organizing our Distinguished Poets series and other readings, as well as the workshops with well-known writers and other events. I hope you will help me to welcome her to the position and support her as you have supported me for all these years.
I am still planning to give poetry readings and run workshops. I hope you will join me at those, but I also want you to continue to support the work of the Poetry Center.
I should say that Lisa Coll Nicolaou has done a fantastic job as a consultant on the Theater and Poetry Project (TAPP). In addition to the programs that we have been doing for many years in Passaic County, she has expanded the program to Jersey City and South Orange.
This moment is a bittersweet one for me. It is difficult for me to leave the Poetry Center, but I am leaving it in good hands.
Please help to continue what I have started and help the Center remain a place where all poets are welcome.
With love and gratitude,
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Executive Director and founder of The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College
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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