Day 6 and 7 of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing…teaching my Literary Publishing class, attending the closing ceremonies…then traveling home from that little island I love so much! Thank you so much to all the awesome attendees, faculty, and staff who made this MVICW 2026 such a warm and wonderful time!!!
Day 5 of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing…teaching my workshops Flash Away and Welcoming Surprises, then faculty Dinner at Oak Bluff’s Black Joy Kitchen followed by the traditional late night visit to Back Door Donuts!
Day 4 of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing…manuscript conferences with tons of awesome writers (not pictured 😀) followed by a faculty trip to Menemsha for sunset lobsters and then fog fog lighthouse fog fog!
Day 3 of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing…talking over manuscripts with writers at the Vineyard Arts Project and hearing the evening readings by the wonderful Hannah Bae and the wonderful Jackson Brown!
Oh, just 3 alumni from Indiana University’s MFA in Creative Writing strolling along the night-time docks in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard: Alexander Weinstein, Jackson Brown, and yours truly!
Day 2 of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing…exploring Edgartown, then giving my poetry reading tonight alongside the wonderful Vogue Robinson!
With a “skol” and a raised glass of elderflower wine Director Alexander Weinstein opens the first week of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing 2026 Summer Conference. I’m teaching here for my 13th year, alongside Alexander, Hannah Bae, Vogue Robinson, and Jackson Brown! Here’s to a week of writing on the Vineyard!!!Â
Hot golly! Advance copies of my nephew Brian’s new jazz album, Keep Moving (Home), on Chicago’s Calligram Records, have arrived. He asked me to write a poem to be the liner notes, and it’s there in the CD and as a pullout insert for the vinyl album! The album’s not up on the label’s website yet, but it’ll be available as digital, CD, and vinyl when it’s released this May.
What a warm and welcoming thrill it was to read for the Triple-A Reading Series this afternoon in Binghamton. Thank you Ralph Pennel for making it all happen, and for the BCAC Artisan Gallery for hosting. And thank you to my awesome fellow readers Jenn Powers and Jen DeGregorio (a Kettle Pond Writers Conference friend from years ago!). And I guess thank you also to this oncoming blizzard for holding off long enough for us to make the drive down and back from Syracuse!
What a joy to spend this morning Zoom-visiting John Howard’s Studies in Nonfiction class, where they have been reading and responding to my lyric essay “What You’re Thinking Now Is a Chunk of Marble” published in the Southeast Review. Thank you to John and his students for their insights and generosity!
The Southeast Review has made the entire essay available to read online:
https://www.southeastreview.org/single-post/38-2-christopher-citro
