Christopher Citro

Christopher Citro

@christophercitro.bsky.social

If We Had a Lemon We'd Throw It and Call That the Sun (2021) and The Maintenance of the Shimmy-Shammy (2015). Pushcart Prize (2018). Best New Poets (2014) Editorial Assistant @Seneca Review. https://christophercitro.com

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Beautiful performance of John Cage's 4'33" and other music tonight at Pink Rock for the 30th anniversary of the Zen Center of Syracuse. Alan Pierson (percussion), Paul Melnikow (percussion), Jen Vacanti (percussion), Lauren Melnikow (cello), and Navzad Dabu (drum machine).

I'm thrilled to have 2 poems in the fall issue of Sixth Finch, "Warm to Warm" & "Stone I Control Nothing," alongside a ton of other awesome poetry and art. My 3rd time in this journal! Thank you Rob MacDonald and Jaime Zuckerman for making Sixth Finch so completely great all the time!

Huge thanks to the Laurel Review for nominating "Three Deaths Near a Body of Water," a poem I wrote collaboratively with Steve Castro and Dustin Pearson, for Black Lawrence Press' Best Small Fiction Anthology! What a delightful surprise!

Day 7 of Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! Myrtos Beach, Avithos Preview Taverna at Avithos Beach, a praying mantis on our apartment door, sunset trip to the top of Mount Ainos, goats, dinner at the Ionian Center for the Arts followed by an reading by the awesome participants!

Day 6 of Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! Teaching my poetry class with Polyphemus the cyclops outside the door. Evening drinks & appetizers with my fellow faculty at the cliffside restaurant the Sea Salt. Faculty readings after dinner at the Ionian Center for the Arts & Culture.

Day 5 of Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! A trip to Zeus Island, 139 steps to the top, in the past a temple to Zeus, before that Aphrodite. A swim at a beach only accessible by boat. Evening martinis at the wonderful Lilly's Cafe Bar on the mountain beside the St George Castle.

Day 4 of my 2nd year teaching poetry for Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! Reading our poems in a library in Lixouri with Greek poets! An amazing lunch; when we asked for the menu he showed us 2 trays of freshly caught fish! A boat to Fteri Beach (only accessible by boat) to swim.

Day 3 of my 2nd year teaching poetry for Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! Classes, beach, taramasalata + grouper + prawn w/ Sarris Winery robola, succulent roadside dates, sightseeing & writing at the mountain castle of Agios Georgios (est. 1085)! Plus an awesome cat friend.

Day 2 of my 2nd year teaching poetry for Freeing the Muse on the island of Kefalonia, Greece! No teaching! Instead a full day sightseeing before classes begin, 2 caves, Myrtos Beach from above, Swimming at Emplysi Beach, and visiting Fiskardo!

Day 1 of teaching for Freeing the Muse at the Ionian Center for the Arts and Culture on Kefalonia, Greece! 16 hours of sleep, a swim at Avithos Beach, sunlight on Mount Ainos, my first Greece cat sighting of this trip, ending with the opening night celebration dinner cooked by the wonderful Sophie!

1 week after teaching at the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, I jump on a plane, travel 12 hours (without sleeping) & here I am on the Greek Ionian island of Kefalonia to teach poetry for my 2nd year for Freeing the Muse at the Ionian Center for the Arts & Culture. Island hopping...

I've loved each of the 14 years I've been teaching for Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. This just finished September session was one of the very best! Thank you to my fellow faculty and to all the poets and writers who came and made it such an inspiring time!

Day 6 of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing! The final day! I taught The Intersections of Writing & Publishing, paneled about The Writing Life, then enjoyed the final night of participant readings. Such a heart-filling week. Thank you to everyone for making it so special!

Day 5 of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing! More manuscript meetings with awesome writers, a Seafood Shanty lunch by the Edgartown docks, sightseeing, ending with the 1st day of participant readings. So many moving poems & stories & essays! My heart left the reading overflowing.

I recently began a new writing project--maybe it'll be a book?-- and today Cold Mountain Review accepted 2 of the prose poems from this project. What a joy to have my work coming up this wonderful journal, & what an encouragement that I might not be on the totally wrong track with this new project!

Day 4 of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing September Edition! I met with awesome writers all day for manuscript consultations, then ate seafood at Menemsha Beach with fellow faculty and we clapped when the sun set. *sarcasm* It's a sort of life, I guess.

Day 3 of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing! I taught two craft/generative classes: one on broken things & anaphora and one on the hermit crab essay. Then in the evening we enjoyed readings by fellow faculty Hannah Bae and Vogue Robinson! Then wonderful Indian food at Indigo!

Day 2 of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing... No teaching for me today, but I read my poetry alongside the wonderful fiction writer Joy Deva Baglio! Thanks so much to all the awesome supportive people in the audience tonight! Golly that was a warm and welcoming time tonight!

With a glass of elderflower wine and a skol, Director Alexander Weinstein opens the third week of the 2026 Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing! My 14th year teaching here. My second week of this year's three sessions. Yip-a-dang! Here's to a great week of writing on the Vineyard!

Join me for my 6-week FALL 2026 writing workshops: Poetry (Weds) and Intro to the lyric Essay (Thus), via Zoom 6-8 pm ET. Both classes will run! Only 1 space left in the poetry class! See christophercitroDOTcom for more info & to register. #Poetry #Writing #WritersLife #WritingCommunity #essays

What a thrill to receive my contributor copy of the new Post Road, containing my poems "Meanwhile Everything Else Is Gone" and "Kicking the Mud Free" and much more literary goodness! HUGE thanks to the wonderful editors of PR!

Join me for my 6-week FALL 2026 writing workshops: Poetry (Weds) and Intro to the lyric Essay (Thus), via Zoom 6-8 pm ET. FYI: There's only 1 space left in my poetry workshop! See christophercitroDOTcom for more info & to register. #Poetry #Writing #WritersLife #WritingCommunity #essays

Announcing my 6-week FALL 2026 writing workshops: Poetry (Weds) and Intro to the lyric Essay (Thus), via Zoom 6-8 pm ET. Earlybird discounted registration ends Aug 23. See christophercitroDOTcom for more info & to register. #Poetry #Writing #WritersLife #WritingCommunity #essays

A midnight IMAX showing of The Odyssey, a rip-roaring re-telling, for this contemporary moment, of that most durable of stories. Christopher Nolan did a great job and Matt Damon was a compelling Odysseus. That Cyclops made me wanna burrow out of the theater through the bottom of my recliner.

What a warm and delightful experience reading my poetry on Friday alongside the wonderful Suzanne Frischkorn for St. David's Rhythm & Rhyme in Fayetteville, NY. Thank you to Laura Hannett for inviting me and thank you to all the kind folks who came!

Central New York friends! I'm reading poetry TONIGHT for St. David's new Rhythm & Rhyme series, alongside the wonderful Suzanne Frischkorn! Plus there's piano music! Yes yes! WHEN Friday, July 17, 7 pm WHERE St. David’s Parish Hall 14 Jamar Drive, Fayetteville, NY

Central New York Friends! I have another reading coming up. This one for the Seneca Review where I am an Editorial Assistant! It's July 22 at the Two Goats Brewery in the Finger Lakes, on a gorgeous hill overlooking Seneca Lake. Come join me and a bunch of awesome readers!