Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Encyclopedia
Life
She grew up in an Italian enclave in Paterson, New JerseyPaterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
's Riverside neighborhood.
She graduated from Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University is a private Roman Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States. Seton Hall is also the oldest and largest Catholic university in the...
and from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
with an MA In Literature. She attended Drew University
Drew University
Drew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
. She married Dennis Gillan; they have two children, John and Jennifer, and two grandchildren, Caroline and Jackson.
She is Director of the Creative Writing Program at Binghamton University -- State University of New York.
She is the founder in 1980, and executive director Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College.
Her work has appeared in Borderlands, Connecticut Review, Feminist Studies, Louisiana Review, New Letters, New Myths, Prairie Schooner, US 1 Worsheets, LIPS, TIFERET, Rosebud, Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, Paddlefish, Praxilla, What's Your Exit, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Caduceus, Los Angeles Review, Mad Poets Review, Longshot, Voices in Italian Americana, Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability Through Literature, The Edison Review, Rattle, Controlled Burn, The Southeast Review, Sojourner, Solo 5, Many Mountains Moving, Red Brick Review,Borderlands, Poetry Ireland, North Dakota Quarterly, The Texas Poetry Review, Crosscurrents, New Moon Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, New Jersey Poetry Monthly, The Mill Street Forward, Vivace, PolyText, Differentia, Ometeca, Earth's Daughters, The Black Swan Review, The Croton Review, Slow Dancer.
She attended Paterson public schools and is a graduate of Eastside High School. She lives in Hawthorne, New Jersey
Hawthorne, New Jersey
Hawthorne is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 18,218.Hawthorne was originally part of the now-defunct Manchester Township, which was later subdivided to create Hawthorne, Haledon, North Haledon, Prospect Park,...
.
Awards
- 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers
- 2008 American Book AwardAmerican Book AwardThe American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
Poetry
- http://www.poetrymagazine.com/archives/2003/Summer2003/gillan.htm"After School on Ordinary Days"; "Growing Up Italian"; "Daddy, We Called You"; "The Black Bear On My Neighbors Lawn in New Jersey"; "Love Poem to My Husband of Thirty-One Years"; "I Dream of My Grandmother and Great Grandmother"; "Paterson"; "Learning to Love Myself"; "Public School #18"; "Watching the Bridge Collapse"; "How The Dead Return"; "Last Night at the Hampton Inn"; "Sometimes I forget How Fragile the Heart Is"; "On Being Italian"; "Photo of My Sister"; "At Eleven, My Granddaughter Loves to Read"; "The Ghosts in Our Bed"; "Breakfast at the I Hop"; "Your Voice on the Phone Wobbles"; "In Second Grade" "How Do I Pack Up the House of My Life?"; "Couch Buddha"; "Poem to John"; "In My Dream, I see You"; "My Father Always Bought Used Cars"; "My Son Tells Me Not to Wear My Poet's Clothes"]
Books of Poetry
- The Weather of Old Seasons, Cross-Cultural Communications, 1989, isbn 9780893044350
- Where I Come From, 1995, Guernica Editions, isbn 9781550710052
- Things My Mother Told Me, Guernica Editions, 1999, isbn 9781550710212
- Italian Women in Black Dresses, Guernica, 2002, isbn 1-55071-156-3
- Maria Mazziotti Gillan: Greatest Hits 1975-2002, Pudding House Publications, April 2003, isbn 1-58998-177-4
- Talismans/Talismani, Ibiskos Editions, 2006, isbn 88-7841-242-2
- All That Lies Between Us, Guernica Editions, 2007, isbn 1-5507-261-2
- What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009, Guernica Editions, 2010, 978-1-55071-304-6
Editor
- Italian American Writers on New Jersey, editors Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, Edvige Giunta, Rutgers University Press, November 2003
- Identity Lessons, editors Maria M. Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, Penguin Putnam, 1999 isbn 9780140271676
- Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American, editors Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, San Val, Incorporated, 1999 isbn 9780613216524
- Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, editors Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, Paw Prints, 2008 isbn 9781439509333