Rylee Thomas
She/Her
Editor in Chief, Instagram Lead
Rylee Thomas is an Honors junior at the University of Connecticut pursuing a dual degree in English and Communication with a concentration in Creative Writing. She’s incredibly grateful to have won the Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest, the Collins Prize in Poetry, and the Aetna Prize for Creative Writing for Children in 2022. Rylee loves writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. When not writing, you can find her figure skating, drinking lattes, and rereading Jane Austen novels.
Camryn Johnson
She/Her
Managing Editor
Camryn Johnson is currently an Honors Senior at the University of Connecticut (UConn) pursuing two degrees: one in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and the other in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies. She is currently the president of Literary Minds, a literature based student run organization on campus. In the past, she has interned in the editorial departments of Gallery Books under Simon and Schuster as well as Orbit Books under Hachette Book Group. She looks forward to being Managing Editor for the 2023 edition of the Long River Review and hopes to pursue a career in publishing.
Aayushi Agarwal
She/Her
Poetry Editor
Aayushi Agarwal is a senior double majoring in English and Psychological Studies. She worked on the poetry panel last year, and she is so excited to come back as poetry editor this year. A few of her absolute favorite poets are Mary Oliver, Richard Siken, and Ocean Vuong. When she’s not busy with school work, she is usually rearranging her Goodreads shelves, making new playlists, or taking pictures of the sky.
Cameron Deslaurier
He/Him
Fiction Editor
Cameron Deslaurier is a senior pursuing a BA in natural resources and minors in English and writing at the University of Connecticut. He was the Interviews Editor for the ‘22 edition of the Long River Review. They’re particularly interested in literary rule-breaking and LGBTQIA+ literature, and they like stories that make them wonder what they’re holding. When they’re not hammering away at their new-adult semi-dystopian novel and chugging lattes, they can be found playing Dungeons & Dragons or meandering through a new patch of woods, usually off trail. His work has appeared in the UConn WHUS Zine.
Sophie Archambault
She/Her
Creative Nonfiction Editor, Copyediting Lead
Sophie Archambault is a senior English major at UConn. She is also pursuing a concentration in creative writing and a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sophie is a tutor in the Writing Center and has been published in The Foundationalist. She also placed third in the 2021 Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest. Sophie served on the creative nonfiction panel last year and is excited to be the editor of the panel this year!
Mariana Batchvarova
She/Her
Translations Editor, Fiction Panelist
Mariana Batchvarova is double-majoring in English-Creative Writing and Communication with a minor in Literary Translation. She has always loved reading anything she can get her hands on, but she does feel more drawn to fiction. She especially loves reading fantasy, magical realism, and folklore/mythology! She has lately been exploring some of these genres with her writing. She is so excited to be a fiction panelist, and she can’t wait to read the submissions!
Kelley Gifford
She/Her
Interviews Editor, Poetry Panelist
Kelley Gifford is an a senior English major also working towards a minor in Film Studies. She is so excited to be a part of the poetry panel, and to read all of the wonderful submissions! Reading and writing have always been a huge part of who she is; some of the writers who’ve impacted her the most in her life have been Elizabeth Bishop, J.D. Salinger, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Most recently, she has absolutely loved Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado. When not reading, she is often hiking, knitting, or playing with her pet rats, Zooey and Boo Ratley!
Joanne Biju
She/Her
Interviews Editor, Poetry Panelist
Joanne Biju is a political science and English double major pursuing a concentration in creative writing. When she’s not plugging away at “Let’s Get Lit-erary,” her column at The Daily Campus, you can probably find her reading fiction of some sort; she is currently making my way through Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas! When it comes to writing, however, she has such a soft spot for creative nonfiction. It transforms the seemingly ordinary into something magical, and she is so excited to dive into submissions this semester!
Pascale Joachim
She/Her
Blog Editor, Nonfiction Panelist
Pascale Joachim is an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Film Studies. She enjoys reading historical and realistic fiction, and some of her favorite authors are Edwidge Danticat, Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Kaitlyn Greenidge. She is excited to be a creative nonfiction panelist because she finds the genre inherently empowering, and she is looking forward to reading the stories people share with Long River. A fun fact about her is that she is a classically trained pianist! She is admittedly a couple of years out of practice, but she still plays whenever she gets the chance.
Madison Bigelow
She/Her
Blog Editor, Poetry Panelist
Madison Bigelow is a junior pursuing a degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Sociology. She is particularly drawn to writing poetry and short fiction, but loves to read just about anything she can find. Other than reading and writing, you can often find her baking, hiking with friends, or drinking excessive amount of coffee.
Alyssa Carbutti
She/Her
Copyediting Lead, Nonfiction Panelist
Ally Carbutti is a junior English major with a track in creative writing. She is so excited to be on the creative nonfiction panel, and to be a part of the LRR team! She really enjoys reading and writing creative nonfiction because she thinks it allows authors to discover pieces of themselves and exist in new ways on the page. She can’t wait to read all the submissions this semester! For fun, she loves to read, write, bake, hike, and attempt DIY projects.
Grace Carver
She/Her
Events Coordinator, Twitter Lead, Poetry Panelist
Grace Carver is a junior double majoring in Special Education and English, but recently she has been considering dropping out 3 years into her degree and running away to hunt ghosts or become the leader of a small country or something. She reads everything she can get her hands on, but her current favorite book is Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. (She is also a total sucker for magical realism.) She writes and paints less than she wishes, but also more than is sane, probably. She loves poetry and this literary magazine, so she is so excited to read everyone’s submissions this year! Also, sometimes, she sits and stares and thinks about The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket just to feel something.
A.J. Smyth
She/Her
Arts Liaison, Poetry Panelist
AJ Smyth is an exchange student from Dublin, Ireland. She is a junior studying English with Creative Writing. She can’t go a day without reading, and enjoys mainly young adult and fantasy. She adamantly refuses to exist in any sort of silence and will either be listening, singing, or playing the guitar at any given moment. She also loves to read and write poetry. Taking pictures and drawing are also some of her favorite things to do. She is so excited to be on the poetry panel and read all the submissions!
Ally LeMaster
She/Her
Facebook Lead, Fiction Panelist
Ally LeMaster is a junior studying English and Journalism. She loves screenwriting, playwriting, and short stories. Her favorite authors are James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Sam Shepard, and Ocean Vuong. She is so excited to read everyone’s pieces! She firmly believes that everyone is a writer; they just need a pen and paper.
Katherine Jimenez
She/Her
TikTok Lead, Fiction Panelist
Katherine Jimenez is a junior studying English-Creative Writing and journalism. She is a big fan of George R.R. Martin (and fantasy fiction in general), Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Plath, and the occasional Holly Black YA novel. She loves to write and plans on becoming a novelist in the future. She is currently working on a novel about her mom’s life in Sandinista Nicaragua with the hopes of finishing it by next year. When she is not writing Latino Fiction, you can probably find her stressing over her on-hold fantasy novel she has been writing since middle school.
Ellen Litman
She/Her
Faculty Advisor
Sean Forbes
He/Him