Maria Giura has taught Literature and Writing at St. John’s University, Montclair State University, and Binghamton University where she received her PhD in English. Giura’s writing has appeared in several literary journals including Prime Number, Presence, Italian Americana, Voices in Italian Americana, Ovunque Siamo, Tiferet, and Lips. She has won awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Center for Women Writers and is a judge for the Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize. Her first book What My Father Taught Me (Bordighera Press, 2018), a finalist for the Paterson Book Prize, is a collection of memory poems about growing up Italian- American from her earliest days as the daughter of immigrant parents. Her second book, Celibate: A Memoir, published October 2019 by Apprentice House Press, is about her struggle to hang onto her faith in the midst of trying to understand—and untangle herself from—her complex relationship with a Catholic priest; Publishers Weekly calls it “complex and emotionally wrought” and Anthony Tamburri, Dean of the Calandra Institute, calls it “a poignant must read.”
