Spotlight On Writers
Christina Ciufo
- Where, do you hail from?
I hail from Connecticut. Born, raised, and currently living in Shelton, Connecticut located near many working farms, churches, and historical old homes.
- What is the greatest thing about the place you call home?
The greatest thing about the place I call home is its’ New England vibe especially during Autumn. Growing up in Connecticut, I’ve always looked forward to Autumn because there’s something about the season that evokes the senses from smelling bonfires, fresh cut hay and wheat, and autumn leaves, pumpkins in vast pumpkin fields, historical old cemeteries, homemade apple, and pumpkin pies. When I was a child, I always enjoyed jumping in a pile of leaves, imagining myself swimming in a golden-auburn lake, pumpkin picking at the local farms with my family, and trick or treating on Halloween, which is a big event in my town. When Autumn comes serenity, beauty, enlightenment, and thaumaturgy, like oak leaves plummeting and twirling in October air’s pale-charcoal hair, overcomes and awakens one’s imagination, body, mind, and soul.
- What turns you on creatively?
I have to say what inspires me creatively is watching, researching, and reading about folklores and legends about witches, ghosts, vampires, haunted castles, houses, cemeteries, and mansions, and monsters. There’s something about folklore and legends about supernatural entities and haunted places that intrigues me because these entities and places can tap into one’s keen sight, having the ability to bridge between the worlds of old and new legends, light and darkness, skeptic and believer, and reality and imagination. Growing up, I’ve always heard and became intrigued with famous ghost stories such as the White Lady at Union Cemetery, the Salem Witch Trials, the Witch House at Salem, and the Legend of the Headless Horsemen because each of these stories, like different pieces of artwork in an art gallery, painted, builds, and evokes curiosity, exhilaration, and dread. Other things that also inspired me creatively are nature, the different seasons, relationships, love, mythology, and dreams.
- What is your favorite word, and can you use it in a poetic sentence?
Ensorcellment.
October wind clamors
to the Harvest Moon,
awakening Autumn’s ensorcellment,
shawled in scarlet-brown oak leaves
within the dark, inauspicious forest.
- What is your pet peeve?
Two pet peeves I have are indecisiveness and procrastination.
- What defines Christina Ciufo?
The definition of Christina Ciufo is someone who’s a poet, an artist of imagination, lover of enriched, evoking poetic language, a storyteller, a voice, a dreamer, and the bridge between the worlds of old and new legends. She’s someone who sees the world in a glass half-full perspective where she sees all the goodness and beauty around her.
- His Christmas Tale - December 26, 2023
- Mistletoe Bride - December 1, 2023
- Washington Irving’s Ghost - October 26, 2023
