Letter from the Editor

yours is the light by which my spirit’s born:
yours is the darkness of my soul’s return
– e.e. cummings, “you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars”

A decade ago I was interviewing by phone with a faculty member from Antioch who asked what I wanted to work on if I joined the MFA program. I told her my work was long. Really long. I also preferred the narrative was far removed from myself.

I said, I should try to make small work. I find small work – frightening.

Why do you think that is, she asked.

The question hit me in the heart. Well, I hesitated, What if it’s not enough?

This was an awful fear to say aloud. I am glad I overcame it, and I might not have if it had not been for Citron.

As most editors will tell you, reading the work of others is the best teacher. My time at Citron has taught me how much we need small work in our lives, and how much our small words are needed in the world. For that, I am grateful to our contributors for teaching me the gift of brief literature: to write and read in short forms is to take a moment to be only where you shift your attention. This is enough.

Founding Editor Antonia Crane used to say that Citron publishes short forms that shimmer. Over a difficult decade, in this difficult time, these are the days we need the respite found in the shimmering. In short forms we are reminded how powerful small moments can be.

Help.

Thank you.

I love you.

In the shimmering light, this is where Citron stories live.

In our spring issue we have two new features. We have reconfigured Micro to include creative nonfiction and poetry, as well as fiction that is 100 words or less. In our second Zest feature, JR Walsh reviews Ghosts of You by Cathy Ulrich. Zest is exciting and ongoing; there will be more in 2020.

On behalf of The Citron Review and its staff, we wish you well. Thank you, writers and readers, for sharing this moment with us. Be sure to send your small work our way.

Take care,

Angela M. Brommel
Editor-in-Chief
The Citron Review

ABOVE IMAGE CREDIT: Jill Katherine Chmelko. Spring Trio. 2020.

Masthead

Table of Contents

Poetry

Notes on the selections by Eric Steineger

Creative Nonfiction

Notes on the selections by Marianne Woods Cirone

Flash Fiction

Notes on the selections by Elizabeth De Arcos

Micros

Notes on the selections by JR Walsh

Zest

Our second review for our new section is: