David Citino

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, David Citino earned a BA from Ohio University and PhD from the Ohio State University. His ten poetry collections include The Discipline: New and Selected Poems, 1980–1992 (1992), Broken Symmetry (1997), The News and Other Poems (2002), The Appassionata Poems (1983), and A History of Hands (2006).

Citino investigated both secular and sacred matters, mortality, history, and identity and at times channeled an invented character named Sister Mary Appassionata. Bill Christophersen, reviewing Broken Symmetry for Poetry, observed that the collection “takes its name from a particle-physics term signifying states in which earlier symmetry can be found. It’s a tailored metaphor for spiritual malaise as well as for the nostalgia many adults feel toward their youth.” Though Citino addressed his own degenerative disease, Christophersen found much “wit and relish for light verse” in the collection.

Citino taught for many years at Ohio State, where he was named poet laureate of the school. He edited a book on teaching poetry, The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry (2001), and served as a poetry editor at the Ohio State University Press.

Citino’s awards included fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council and Ohioana Career Award from the Ohioana Library Association. Citino died of complications from multiple sclerosis in 2005.