Today the good folks at The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing have shared a writing prompt of mine about Welcoming Surprises in your poetry. You can read it online for free-sies!
Category Archives: Teaching
Reminder: My Free Zoom Creative Nonfiction Class Tomorrow!
This is just a reminder that I’m teaching a free online creative writing class tomorrow, Wednesday July 1, from 10-12 Eastern Time. It’s a creative nonfiction class on Hermit Crab essays, a kind of lyric essay. They’re fun! No need to register or anything, just use the Zoom link below and join us! It’s part of this week’s virtual 11th year of Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and it’s hosted by the Oak Bluff’s Public Library on Martha’s Vineyard. I can’t take you all out for a cup of chowder afterwards, but we should have a lovely digital time together! 🙂
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Weds July 1: 10am-12: Christopher Citro: Zoom Lyric Essay Writing Workshop:
The Hermit Crab Essay
In this class we’ll explore the hermit crab essay, a hybrid form of the lyric essay which uses the shell of an existing form of writing, such as a recipe or questionnaire, in which to write our own personal essay. We’ll gain an acquaintance with this popular new form of the personal essay, then use prompts to inspire us in our own writing journey. Previous writing experience welcomed but not required. Free and open to all writers.
https://oakbluffs.zoom.us/j/98698055535?pwd=K2NSaU1NYlBqWUtqajg4VnZhNktKdz09
I’m teaching 2 online creative writing classes this summer!
I’m teaching two 6-week creative writing workshops (poetry & creative nonfiction) this summer via The Downtown Writers Center in Syracuse. Anyone anywhere can sign up to take them cuz online! Yay! Registration is inexpensive and open to the public — you don’t need to be a Y member! To learn more about The Downtown Writer’s Center, download the summer class schedule with all its awesome class offerings, and register for these workshops, visit the Center’s website HERE. Feel free to share with anyone who might be interested!
P.S. classes cap at 10 students, so if you are interested, register early! 
I’m teaching & reading online next week – for free!
This is happening online next week! All free! 🙂 Workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Readings in the evenings! I’m teaching a generative workshop on Hermit Crab Lyric Essays on Wednesday morning, July 1, and I’m giving a reading on Friday July 3 at 7 pm. It’s all free and organized through the Oak Bluffs Public Library on Martha’s Vineyard. Tune in and join us!
Write your lyric essay!
The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, where I’ve taught seven of the last ten years, has begun sharing writing exercises as part of their new online content. The Institute won’t be happening in person this summer, for obvious reasons, but anyone can now enjoy free weekly writing prompts from the faculty. Today they’ve posted an exercise I created.
It’s a prompt to guide you in writing a lyric essay, specifically one of the fragmented/collage type lyric essays which I love so much. Happy writing!
To get the writing exercise, click HERE!
Thank you Martha’s Vineyard!
Thank you so much to all the great folks who came out to my class on the hermit crab essay and my poetry reading yesterday at the Oak Bluffs Library on Martha’s Vineyard! It was such a treat!  Thank you to Carolina and Marco for hosting me at the library. Thank you to Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing for bringing me to the island as part of the year-long visiting writers series!
I’m teaching & reading in Martha’s Vineyard Feb 29, 2020!
I’m delighted to announce that I’m returning to Martha’s Vineyard at the end of this month! I’ll be teaching a 2-hour writing class on the Hermit Crab Essay and then giving a poetry reading at the Oak Bluffs Public Library on Feb 29. It’s all completely free and open to the public. Dag! This event is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing’s Year-Round Writers Series. I did it last year, too, and we had a great time. If you’re in the area, please come on by!
More info HERE.
Fall Visiting Writer at Cayuga College!
Thank you to Mark Montgomery and Richard Bower for inviting me to be this fall’s Visiting Writer at Cayuga College, a tradition going back more than 30 years and including the likes of writers like George Saunders and Robert Bly. I had a blast reading my poems for the students, responding to their thoughtful questions, sharing a craft essay, talking about publishing, and doing some writing together. Such a full and inspiring experience. Thank you most of all to the students of Cayuga Community College, at both the Auburn and the Fulton Campuses. Your smiles and generosity warmed my way through this early winter deep freeze!
I’m Teaching a Poetry Workshop This Autumn at The Downtown Writer’s Center in Syracuse, NY
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching an 8-week poetry writing workshop called “Place and Poetic Practice” starting October 2, 2019 at The Downtown Writer’s Center in sunny Syracuse, NY.
Place and Poetic Practice with Christopher Citro. Wednesdays, 6:00-8:00. 8 weeks, starting October 2. In this workshop we’ll discuss poetry that incorporates a sense of place to enchant and challenge the reader. We’ll use prompts and exercises drawn from our readings to inspire new writing. Required text: The Poem’s Country: Place & Poetic Practice, edited by Shara Lessley and Bruce Snider (Pleiades Press, 2018).
Registration is inexpensive and open to the public. To learn more about The Downtown Writer’s Center, download the winter class schedule, and register for this workshop, visit the Center’s website HERE. Feel free to share with anyone who might be interested!
Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference!
What an awesome, regenerative, inspiring week of talking about poems and creating new poems with these extraordinary writers, the members of my Generative Poetry Workshop at the Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference in Paul Smith’s College. Thank you thank you thank you everyone!