Written By Ally LeMaster
A Year In Review:
Long River Review has been a literary tradition at the University of Connecticut since 1997. This week, our staff published Issue 27, which highlights a diversity of stories ranging from topics of the generational impact of immigration to the lasting trauma of school shootings.
Issue 27, as lovingly referred to by our staff as the “Under the Sea” edition, ushers in a new era for the literary magazine.
Over the past year, our managing editor Katherine Jimenz and I have been working on updating the Long River Review. We wanted to modernize it; give it a more professional online appearance. Our goal was to make LRR stand out compared to other undergraduate magazines.
While we were able to achieve this on my fronts: receiving the most submissions compared to any other year, gaining a larger following on social media and creating a well-put-together print issue, we faced a lot of setbacks along the way that might plague our literary magazines for iterations to come.
At the start of spring semester, we were notified that the funds typically set aside for LRR were gone. For the first two weeks, we did not if we had the money to publish Issue 27.
This set us back in many regards.
Classes that were supposed to be about collaborating and editing were spent protesting budget cuts and brainstorming new ways to make money. Our staff stood in the freezing cold to make it known to university officials that our magazine might not survive the way it had for the past 26 years.
While the money came back to us for Issue 27, we had to make fundraising a priority to pay for the remainder of this year and next year — funds we are still unsure will come back to the magazine.
Holding this physical edition of LRR in my hands felt surreal to say the least, but I can’t help but worry about the future of this magazine.
Long River Review will live on no matter what strife comes its way, but we must make it easier for students to engage in literature. When university budget cuts happen, creative writing programs are some of the first to disappear.
We have to make it known that while literary magazines are almost always underfunded, they are loved and celebrated. Long River Review helps amplify diverse voices and acts as a medium for artists and writers to showcase their displays of expression.
Long River Review deserves to have a place in UConn’s budget. Because without investing money into publications that promote creativity and art, you are leaving behind an important facet of your community.