Letter from the Editor

I watch those green
trees now and it feels libidinous.
– Ada Limón, “It Begins With the Trees”

Depending on where you live it already feels like summer is here. In southern Nevada we had more rain than usual early in the year. Because of this the grass and trees are  the deepest green that I remember in many years. I live near trails that wind through the surrounding neighborhoods, and in many places the canopy of trees partially enclose the paths. I am particularly fond of two plum trees that have grown their branches so close to each other that they look like they are moments away from embracing. 

Published in 2022 during the pandemic, “It Begins With Trees” written by Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, tells the story of two cypress trees that the poet believes are dangerously kissing. What an inventive way to address our collective unease with intimacy and uncertainty. The poem ends, “I want them to go on kissing, without/fear. I want to watch them and not/feel so abandoned by hands. Come/home. Everything is begging you.” Two years later this poem still resonates as we are still navigating how to get back home. Our Spring 2024 Issue is full of stories that capture that same feeling of want.

This spring we welcome two new members to the team. Lisa K. Buchanan joins Creative Nonfiction as a guest reader. You might remember her Fall 2023 publication with Citron, “How I Lose Him.” You can also find her writings in Bending Genres, The Brevity Blog, The Ekphrastic Review, and New Ohio Review. In 2023 her work was awarded a Notable in Best American Essays, and in 2022 she was awarded First Place in CRAFT’s Short Fiction Prize.

Joining as a guest reader in Poetry, Gigi Guizado is an actor, writer, and theatre translator. Her micro-plays have had productions or staged readings in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and London. Her poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net and published in The Emerson Review, Rogue Agent Journal, Salamander Ink Magazine, The Bluebird Word, among others. Her translations have been published in Another Chicago Magazine, Asymptote Journal, The Mercurian, and featured on Performing International Plays.

On behalf of The Citron Review, thank you for reading with us this late Spring.

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

IMAGE ABOVE: [Landscape with Cypress Trees], Louis Fleckenstein, 1907–1943, Gelatin silver print

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Table of Contents

Poetry

Notes on the selections by Levi Bradley Jessup

Creative Nonfiction

Notes on the selections by Ronit Plank

Flash Fiction

Notes on the selections by Elizabeth De Arcos

Micros

Notes on the selections by JR Walsh

Zest

Find our best interviews and reviews.