Readings from Gil Fagiani’s Missing Madonnas, (Bordighera Press, 2018)

In the posthumously published Missing Madonnas, the late poet Gil Fagiani writes with lyricism and humor about the absurdities of life, from mythical Madonnas to nonnas to urban addictions, gallant struggles for redemption, and the sustained beauty of ordinary days and lives. Dedicated to his Orlandini family, this book is the last in a trilogy; the first two volumes are Chianti in Connecticut and Stone Walls. This Italian American’s poetry transcends the conventional images of the postwar ’50s, the turbulent ’60s, and the bitter tenderness of a life that ended much too soon. Participants will include Chris Belden, Bill Cavellini, Stephanie Dickinson, Chris Fiocco, Marisa Frasca, Nicholas Grosso, Cindy Hochman, Bob Holman, Julia Lisella, Maria Lisella, Florence Muller, and Joseph Sciorra.

Gil Fagiani manages to honor his own life struggles and those of his ancestors in a way that touches the heart without whitewash or sentimentality. …One can only hope that, with his untimely passing, Gil Fagiani now walks alongside the souls so beautifully rendered in these pages.
—Chris Belden, author, Shriver