Joseph A. Citro is a Vermont author and folklorist who has extensively researched and documented the folklore, hauntings, ghost stories, paranormal activity and occult happenings of New England.

Early life and education

Citro was born in Rutland, Vermont. He grew up in Chester, Vermont, lived in Underhill, Vermont, and lives in Windsor, Vermont.[1][2][3] His father was a machinist and storyteller, telling tales of the people and natural world of Vermont, and his mother encouraged his love of reading.[1] As a child he wrote short stories and comic books.[4] He graduated from Keene State College with a BA in English in 1971.[4] He worked for the state's Department of Education and the Department of Human Service until 1983 designing vocational educational programs for people with developmental disabilities.[1][5]

Career

Interested in horror since he was a child, especially the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, Citro began his writing career by authoring several horror novels, including Shadow Child, The Unseen, [6] and Guardian Angels. These novels blended the gothic elements of Poe and the eldritch terror of Lovecraft with actual Vermont folklore and contemporary New England settings. Citro has sold the film options for Shadow Child five times, including once to Miramax.[2]

Citro collects eccentric legends, folk tales, mysterious monsters, UFO sightings, haunted houses, and general uncanny activity of New England. This became the basis for his books Weird New England and The Vermont Monster Guide..[1] He sees part of his role as a writer to keep myths and mythmaking alive by bringing them to a wide audience and getting people to share their own stories, creating community.[1] He is frequently asked if he believes in ghosts.[2][3]

If ghosts are the spirits of the dead, no, I don't believe.... If ghosts are some sort of spiritual phenomenon that we don't have a better explanation for, then, yes, I do believe... [B]ut I don't know what they are. [2]

He has given many seminars about writing horror and non-fiction, and gave commentaries on Vermont Public Radio from 1990-2010.[2] He has done public speaking in prisons and to students who are reluctant readers.[1][4] He has taught at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. His works Guardian Angels, The Unseen and Lake Monsters have been released in Polish, following the publishing boom for horror novels in Poland, after the revolutions of 1989. Lake Monsters has also been released in French.

Novels

Non-fiction

  • Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls and Unsolved Mysteries (1994)
  • Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors (1996)
  • The Vermont Ghost Guide (2000)
  • Curious New England: The Unconventional Traveler's Guide to Eccentric Destinations (2003) (with Diane E. Foulds)
  • Cursed in New England: Stories of Damned Yankees (2004)
  • Weird New England (2006) (with a foreword by Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran)
  • The Vermont Monster Guide (2009)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Daley, Yvonne (February 24, 1991). "Joseph Citro, Vermont's Own King of the Gothic Genre". Rutland Daily Herald. p. 50. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bolles, Dan (2020-10-28). "The Legend of Author and Folklorist Joe Citro - Books - Vermont's Independent Voice". Seven Days. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  3. 1 2 "Windsor Author Joseph Citro is Still Writing, Telling Weird Tales". Valley News. 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  4. 1 2 3 MacKenzie, Melissa (April 4, 1999). "Joe Citro Mines his Dark Tales from Vermontiana". Rutland Daily Herald. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  5. ↑ Daley, Yvonne (February 24, 1992). "Joseph Citro Bard of the Bizarre". Boston Globe. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  6. ↑ Press Republican : Co-authors catalog region's weirdness Apr 25, 2003
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