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Joseph A. Citro is a Vermont author and folklorist. Occasionally referred as the "Bard of the Bizarre" or "the Ghost-Master General", he has extensively researched and documented the folklore, hauntings, ghost stories, paranormal activity and occult happenings of New England.
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 The Gore, Shadow Child, 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. Later, Citro decided to make an attempt to catalogue all of the eccentric legends, folk tales, mysterious monsters, UFO sightings, haunted houses, and general uncanny activity of New England. His books on these subjects include Green Mountains' Ghosts, Ghouls, and Unsolved Mysteries, Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors, Green Mountains, Dark Tales, and most recently Damned Yankees: Cursed in New England. Later, he published Curious New England: The Unconventional Traveler's Guide to Eccentric Destinations with Diane Foulds, a travel guide to New Englands peculiar and paranormal locations.
Citro has given many seminars about writing horror and non-fiction, and given commentaries on Vermont Public Radio.