Elijah: Hi everyone. My name is Elijah, I am a member of the interviewing and podcasting team. And I am here with Kiara, who’s also a member of the interviewing and podcasting team.
Kiara: Hi, guys.
Elijah: So Kiara, could you introduce yourself and what you do with the Long River Review a little bit?
Kiara: Yeah, my name is Kiara Korten and I am a panelist on the creative nonfiction genre. I’m also the head of the interview and podcast team.
Elijah: Great. So to start off, what got you interested in the Long River Review and how did you find out about it?
Kiara: So I took a really great class with Ellen Litman, who is one of the people in charge at Long River. And I took her creative writing class. And at the end of it, she mentioned how if you are above a freshman, that you can be free to apply. And I think she actually talked to me personally and said that she thought I would be a great fit and I was like, “Oh my God, this sounds like an amazing opportunity, of course I’m going to apply.”
Elijah: Yeah, sounds great, that’s kind of similar to how I figured out about it. So now that we’re about halfway through the semester, you’ve had a bit of experience here as a member of the staff. What has your favorite part of working with the Long River Review been so far?
Kiara: That’s a good question. I actually think personally it was really beneficial to have so much time over winter break to read, you know, 150 submissions to think about, “What do I like about this story? What makes me not like it? What do I want to read? What do I want to see in a journal?” So it was, you know, beneficial to be able to read this many works from people, but also to reflect a bit on about what I enjoy.
Elijah: Yeah, I definitely relate to you there, especially with creative nonfiction where it’s also you’re seeing other people’s experiences.
Kiara: Yeah, absolutely. I was also going to say that I really love the genre of creative nonfiction. And you know, this beautiful art of people being so vulnerable and telling their stories.
Elijah: Yeah, there was a lot of great creative nonfiction stories out there, for sure. So I guess now that we’re talking a little bit about writing yourself, I know that you were the winner of the Aetna Prize for Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. So could you tell me a little bit about what you actually wrote to win that award?
Kiara: Yeah, totally. I actually wrote this story in Ellen’s creative writing class. And fiction isn’t really a genre that I am totally comfortable with, but I have done a lot of creative writing. I’m actually originally from Miami, Florida, where I went to a charter arts school from middle school to 10th grade. So I have done a lot of writing and entering competitions. But this story in particular I had a lot of fun with, and it was the first time for a while where I really got to be creative and write outside of, you know, academics and like wanting to win an award. Which is ironic because I did end up winning an award, which is, I guess maybe there’s something there. My story follows a young girl. She’s walking in the forest, in the rain in near Portland, Maine, and the Earth sort of lifts up and reveals a tunnel for her.
She ends up going down and falling into the center of the Earth, where she discovers that there is a floating island filled with these human sized bugs living in a sort of complex society. And she ends up finding the queen, they share a pretty meaningful conversation. The whole story, sort of the point of it was to talk about anthropocentrism. So, you know our human-centeredness and using fiction to reimagine a story, where, what are really the differences between us and insects? We think of ourselves as so much superior, but you know, we succumb to the same things. We both live and die, we both need the same planet, etc. So that was my mindset going into it.
Elijah: Oh, that sounds like a really wonderful read. Was it like a short story? Was it more of like a novel?
Kiara: Definitely a longer short story. I think the Word document was like 13 pages, yeah.
Elijah: Sounds great.
Kiara: Thank you.
Elijah: So what other things are you involved with on campus that maybe aren’t writing related? Or maybe they are, but just in a different, you know, area of writing?
Kiara: Yeah, so another thing that I do is I have a radio show on Fridays from 2:00 to 3:00 called Voyages in Verse. I love the radio station and having a platform where I can talk about themes and play my music and bringing people on has been really amazing for me. I think to myself, like, where else can I just become a radios’, like, DJ other than, you know, at a university?
Elijah: Yeah, there’s so many cool opportunities on the campus like that that really are so available to college students and harder to get later on. And I can’t recommend her show enough, I actually, ironically, started listening last semester before I even knew Kiara, so I recognized her voice from the show. It was kind of a funny moment there.
Kiara: Let’s go, that’s awesome.
Elijah: One final question for you: What is maybe your favorite podcast and what are some things from that podcast that you might want to emulate or channel with the Long River podcast that we’re going to be working on this semester?
Kiara: Oh my God, this is an amazing question because I feel very strongly about my podcasts. So I’ll give 2 that I love and I recommend to everyone which is the Moth Radio Hour and then This American Life from NPR. The Moth, in particular, has really, really impacted me. There’s something about, you know, hearing someone tell their story, the infliction in their voice, that I think can really touch a person. I think it is so important for people to do that. That is how we share messages, that is how we have always, you know, shared messages and helped people foster empathy. I think The Moth does an incredible job.
Actually, this past winter break with my boyfriend, we went to go see a live Moth show and it was amazing. It was, oh my God, I heard like, it was five stories, and they were all incredible. And in between each story there was this professional jazz saxophonist who did these solo riffs, and it was in this dramatic cathedral with like this lighting. And it was an incredible experience, and I just feel very lucky that I got to go see that.
Elijah: Yeah, it’s great that podcasting has become such a big thing where you, like, can spectate it like that, and it becomes such a big performance beyond just, you know, like something audio media that you get to take in, that’s really neat.
Kiara: Exactly. I think there’s a lot of future in this industry, in listening to stuff.
Elijah: That’s all the questions I have. Thank you, Kiara, for sitting down and talking to me a little bit about yourself.
Kiara:
Thank you, this was really fun.
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Tori: Hello, I’m Tori! I’m excited to sit down with Elijah, another one of the faces behind the podcast.
Elijah: Hi there! Thanks for having me.
Tori: What is your role at LRR?
Elijah: So at the Long River Review, I am the creative nonfiction editor, and I am a member of the interviewing and podcasting team.
Tori: Okay, great. Can I ask you what brought you to the program?
Elijah: So I actually found out about the Long River Review before I even came to UConn. I think it was during the accepted student’s day that happens in I think March or April for high school students that are still trying to make their final decision. And I came here to UConn, and there was a humanities presentation.
So I went to that and Rylee Thomas who, I’m not sure what role she served then, but I know last year she was a member of this team and the creative nonfiction editor, gave a whole presentation about long overview. So I saw that and I was like, “That’s really cool, I want to do this,” and that was kind of something that made me want to choose UConn over the other schools I was deciding between.
Tori: So you learned about it way early and it was one of the factors that brought you to UConn. At LRR, there’s this application process, we’ve all been through it, and we state our preferences as genre panels, but we don’t know exactly where we will be placed. Did you know, or have a feeling that you would be a nonfiction panelist, or at least as a member of the podcast team?
Elijah: I wasn’t as surprised about the interviewing and podcasting team. That’s not something I mentioned in my initial e-mail, but I did talk about it in my interview with Sean. But being on the creative nonfiction panel and especially being the editor wasn’t something I expected. I had initially highlighted fiction and poetry as the two genres I was most interested in because they’re the two that I tend to read the most in my free time and I tend to write more in them as well.
Not that I have anything against creative nonfiction, I think it’s an amazing genre, I was just a little afraid it would feel like I was evaluating people’s experiences, which is why I was a bit hesitant, but I haven’t felt like it’s been that way at all and I am very glad and grateful that I’ve been on this panel because I have enjoyed every single bit of it.
Tori: Would you say it’s not about the story, it’s about how you tell it, holds true for the nonfiction panel?
Elijah: 100%. As we were reading through over the winter break and then actually talking with my panel about which pieces were strongest, which ones weren’t, it was never an issue of “What did this person go through?”, “Is it worth telling?”, that didn’t even come into the question. It was really just how it was written, how engaging is it? And it’s definitely more about the writing and the storytelling more than it is, how your life went.
Tori: My next question is one of those stereotypical college experience questions. What’s your major?
Elijah: I am an English and journalism major.
Tori: What got you into journalism? Would you say your love for journalism is related to your love for copyediting and working for the Long River Review?
Elijah: I’d say they’re related in some way. I was looking for some electives in my spring semester of last year. So I took like an intro journalism class, which was interesting, but it was more about journalism itself and not actually writing it. So then that made me hungry to actually practice some journalistic writing. And from there, I’ve just gotten more and more interested. And I really like that writing style too, so it kind of works with what I like doing with writing as well.
Tori: That’s great. Are you doing any writing or journalism-based student orgs on campus? Can we see your work?
Elijah: So I do some writing for The Daily Campus. I mainly do music reviews. I like doing event coverage, but it’s a little hard to fit into my schedule, but I try and get them both in there. And right now I’m taking a Hartford journalism class where I’m reporting on sewage issues with some other classmates and we’ll be published once we’re finished.
Tori: That’s great, that’s good to hear. I did some writing for the news section of The Daily Campus. What section are you in?
Elijah: I’m a member of the life section.
Tori: The life section, okay. So why the life section specifically?
Elijah: It’s a little more flexible, I feel, because you get to cover, you know you can go to an event on campus and cover that if you want. If you’re just really passionate about some really cool walking path or something, you could probably talk about it there. Or you can just go to, because I like listening to a lot of different music, s I like just putting my thoughts in about that, maybe getting people exposed to something they haven’t heard before.
Tori: So what was your favorite piece to write for The Daily Campus?
Elijah: That’s a tough one. I actually covered the second Long River Reading Series that was hosted by the Creative Writing Program in I think November of last semester and I really am happy with that article. We had two poetry presenters, so I talked about the two poets, the things that they wrote interviewed a couple of students about what they took away from it. I got to interview Kyle Barron, the associate director of the Creative Writing Program, who organized the event and got to ask why the program is important and how students can get involved. So I think that’s a neat piece that kind of relates to the Long River Review.
Tori: I’ll give it a read. Lastly, I just wanted to ask if there’s anything you would like to say to any incoming journalism majors, anyone interested into writing, what clubs or organizations to navigate at UConn?
Elijah: So first kind of obvious, I would definitely shout out Long River Review. You might not do as much writing, but there is like a blog writing component. You do a lot of reading and I think getting to read so many other authors work and the different approaches to genres can really inspire you or give you different ideas for how you might want to write yourself. And there’s also amazing creative writing classes here, amazing creative writing professors, would definitely recommend taking those.
Even if you’re not someone who tends to write creatively, it’s still a nice change of pace from doing a lab report or writing an essay. There’s The Daily Campus, obviously, if you’re into more journalistic writing. There’s, I know there is a creative writing club that meets weekly. I don’t know exactly what day, but they definitely go more into like the fiction side, which is great if you’re into that.
Tori: Yeah, I think me as well, those are the among the heavy hitters. I’d also like to shout out a few professors that I think we’ve gotten familiar with Professor Ellen Litman and Professor Sean Forbes are great resources for anyone interested in writing or creative writing, and I’ve had a great time having them as my personal professors and you might say the same.
Elijah: Yeah, of course. They’ve done great. I had two classes with Ellen, just an intro creative writing class and a fiction workshop. And Tori and I had the same class actually for both of those and then Sean for Long River Review and it’s been an amazing experience in all three.
Tori: Yes, fun fact: you can meet great people in the creative writing classes, Elijah can attest to that, he met me. But yeah, I’m so happy to have you here in this interview. And I appreciate you coming on.
Elijah: Yeah, thank you so much for having me!
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Kiara: Hello everyone. Today we are here with Tori on this lovely spring evening. And Tori, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Tori: Yeah, so I am a political science and English major. I’m minoring in German, and I am a sophomore here at UConn.
Kiara: That is a really cool collection of things to study, and I’m super excited to get into it. So to begin, can you tell me what you do at Long River Review and how did you hear about it?
Tori: So at Long River Review, I am a fiction panelist. I’m also a member of this year’s podcast team and I found out about it through Professor Ellen Litman’s class, where she was advising students to look at the Long River Review, it’s an editing program if you’re really into writing. And at the time I already took two creative writing classes with her. And I thought it would be a great way to engage myself and get more involved in the publishing side.
Kiara: Awesome. And can you tell me how you like what you do both as a panelist and then as a beginning podcast and interview member?
Tori: As a panelist, well, this is our first interview. So right now we’re kind of working out the kinks of using the studio, learning the equipment, setting up, reaching out to individuals to do the interviews. But outside of that I also did a lot of reading for the fiction panel in order to rank the works, figure out which ones we were going to publish, etc. It was a lot of fun.
Kiara: I hear you, it was definitely a lot of work. Moving on, I want to ask what you’re involved in on campus. I know UConn has so many clubs and so many communities that people can be part of and where do you fit in?
Tori: So right now a lot of what I’m doing is boxing, actually. You guys can’t see me right now.
Kiara: Yeah. She’s wearing UConn boxing team sweatshirt. She looks really cool in it.
Tori: Thank you. That’s what I do pretty much 3 or 4 times a week. Outside of that I used to do some work for The Daily Campus, I’m trying to get back into it. But those are my main priorities right now.
Kiara: That is really cool. And I’m sure you will only get stronger and more fierce.
Tori: Yeah, hopefully.
Kiara: My next question is what is the best class that you have taken at UConn so far and why?
Tori: My favorite class. Oh, I’m tempted to say Long River Review cause they’ll probably be watching. I’ve actually been blessed at UConn, I’ve had so many great professors.
Kiara: I feel the same way, yeah.
Tori: And engaging classes, so it’s difficult for me to say. Right now I’m taking a really interesting political science course on civil wars in the causes of civil wars. That’s really interesting. I’m also in a indigenous horror class.
Kiara: Oh my God. I’ve heard about that class.
Tori: Yeah, it’s really engaging. Next class, we’re actually going to be meeting the author of a book we just read.
Kiara: Oh what? That is so cool. I love hearing about the various types of classes that my peers take because you look at the course catalog and they’re like so many classes available, and you simply can’t take ‘em all. So the best thing that you can do is, you know, learn through other people. My last question for you is: what is a recent idea/ideal that has impacted you and makes you want to ingrain it into your life?
Tori: I think I would say don’t be hesitant or embarrassed to pursue your interests. Because at the end of the day, those are your values, that’s your passions that make you enjoy being a human being. I think it’s especially critical for university students to really follow their passions, because that’s what we’re here for. And I feel like there’s a lot of push to do things and activities solely for internship, job, whatever. Those are really important. But it’s also important to be engaged in other things that just make your heart happy, you know?
Kiara: I absolutely agree, and I think that’s something that I also realized when I moved on campus and to realize that, like most of the time, like people really don’t care what you’re doing. This campus is so big, there are so many people, no one’s judging you. And I’m sure if we were all, you know, too nervous and afraid, we wouldn’t even be in this room at Long River Review doing this interview right now. So I think that message is quite powerful. All right, and that was my final question. Thank you so much, Tori, for those wonderful and thoughtful responses.
Tori: Thanks for having me.
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Kiara: The next member of our team that I’m interviewing is Emily. Emily, thank you for coming, and can you introduce yourself?
Emily: Of course. My name is Emily Sharkis, I’m a senior here at UConn, majoring in journalism and communication with a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and I’m originally from Long Island, New York.
Kiara: Amazing. And can I ask you what you do at Long River Review and what made you pick it?
Emily: Of course. So I am our social media editor. That’s my main role. And then I also am a poetry panelist and a member of our web team and our podcasting and interviews team. So I kind of have a lot of roles. I view social media as kind of my main thing because I am the editor so I kind of oversee our team, give out assignments weekly, and I love social media.
I’ve had a few internships in content and I just really love that kind of combining of passions. So there’s like the graphic design of it, there’s the audience engagement, there’s video editing, there’s marketing, there’s all kinds of stuff that I really like.
Kiara: That’s really cool. And you definitely do have a lot on your plate there. But I have totally peeped that she’s been doing really great work for our social media. She’s making these TikToks and Instagram posts and they’re all actually quite fun and engaging, so good job.
Emily: Thank you.
Kiara: My next question is what fulfills you in your spare time? You know, outside of school and Long River?
Emily: I just really love media. I love talking about media, so like watching movies, TV shows, even just like music, I love talking about and then I guess that goes hand in hand. Talking to people really fulfills me. Whether that’s like my parents or my friends or random people that I meet at like an event or something. Which is kind of funny ’cause I do have social anxiety, so it’s like that kind of weird like introvert, extrovert situation. Like, I don’t even know, but I do enjoy it, but I’m also terrified.
Kiara: Yeah, there’s like a certain push and pull to it. Interesting.
Emily: Yeah, it depends on how I’m feeling that day, but I do crave, like, the human interaction definitely helps me feel more balanced.
Kiara: I think a lot of people out there can probably relate to that. Moving on, you mentioned that you are a senior. And I know that can be, you know, a pretty tumultuous time in a person’s life, leaving the safety net of university.
Emily: Absolutely.
Kiara: So I want to ask you how your overall experience was here at UConn and what are your plans after you graduate?
Emily: So my experience at UConn definitely had ups and downs. My freshman year was pretty awful. Just for so many reasons, it was moving away from home, it was adjusting to dorm life, didn’t really like my dorm, didn’t know my roommate. All kinds of issues that were like probably going to happen at any college I went to.
And then it started to get better. I’ve really loved it here, it’s kind of taken me so long to make it feel like home, in a sense, just because I don’t deal well with change, if that wasn’t obvious. But it’s been getting to the point where I’m like, damn, like I don’t want to leave. That’s been really interesting because at first I hated it, so it’s been a weird transition and little journey, but overall I would recommend, I liked it, great programs and professors.
As for graduation, it’s, I mean, it’s a tough question because I am kind of interested in so many different career paths that I probably will have an easier time finding a job just because there’s more people hiring, just more of what range of jobs that I could do. But I also don’t know where I’m going to be in six months, which is terrifying. Probably moving back to Long Island, I mean, nothing beats free living situations for a while.
Kiara: Mmhmm.
Emily: And then New York City area’s probably where I’ll stay for a while, just a lot of opportunities in my field, people that I love near there. And also it’s New York City, so like the fact that I already have those roots there, I don’t really want to give that up, but I want to travel too. Everyone says that after graduation, but I would love to travel.
Kiara: But that’s so true though. I mean, this is like a really exciting and freeing time to be. to come into yourself and be an actual adult, to apply these years that you spent learning your passions. I feel excited for you and I can’t wait to see what you do.
Kiara: Thank you so much for coming in here and letting me interview you.
Emily: Of course.
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Elijah: Hi, my name is Elijah and I’m here with Fernanda.
Fernanda: Hi everyone.
Elijah: Hi Fernanda, thank you for coming. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do here for Long River Review?
Fernanda: Yes, absolutely. So I’m an international student from Brazil. I love creative writing, I also love politics. I’m double majoring in English and political science, and my involvement with Long River Review involves many tasks. Mainly in the fictional panel. And I’m also on the podcast and events team.
Elijah: Wow, sounds like a lot to be covered throughout the semester.
Fernanda: Yeah, for sure. So fun, I really love it.
Elijah: So what got you interested in Long River Review and how did you find out about it?
Fernanda: I found out about it because I took creative writing last semester and my professor Ellen Litman mentioned there were openings And so I googled it and like did my own research and I found that it was a really cool opportunity on campus. I decided to apply and ended up getting it.
Elijah: Yeah, sounds great. So, your, a member of the fiction panel, could you tell me a little bit about what the reading process and selection process was for it, considering there were so many pieces that could have varied in length by so much?
Fernanda: Oh yeah, for sure. So I went over everything during winter break. So there were a lot of pieces and I think the most overwhelming part of the process is probably the volume in such a short amount of time. To get over everything, to get everything like a fair chance and also like, try to have always an unbiased look of the piece in itself.
The team in general was so supportive. Our editor Sophia was incredibly helpful during the process and I ended up having a lot of fun going through all the pieces and it’s very inspiring that we were able to like, you know, work with so many incredible writers.
Elijah: Yeah, I completely agree. And in my experience, I really enjoyed how solitary the reading process was, and then how collaborative the process of selecting like the final pieces for publication. I thought that was a really cool contrast and let me see the pieces in completely different ways.
Fernanda: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think it’s always nice when you get together and people point out different aspects of the narrative that you didn’t see before and like you start sometimes even appreciating a piece more. So the process of selecting was very, very fun too. I think the best part of it was probably to see how even though we have different tastes, we could come up with solid reasons as to why those pieces were being chosen.
Elijah: Yeah, sounds like a great process. What are some other activities that you’re involved in here at UConn?
Fernanda: I love Cru, so I’m a Christian and I always go to the Cru hangouts. I have a lot of hobbies. I love reading, I love writing myself, hanging out with friends. I don’t really have other clubs that I’m actively involved, I kind of like try different things every like now and again and go to a painting night or like, you know, movie night and, you know, school gets busy for sure. But I definitely take some time to enjoy the opportunities in campus.
Elijah: Yeah, there are so many different events that pop up all over the place. You get to really try out so many different things that you wouldn’t be able to elsewhere. So you mentioned reading and writing, what are some of the genres you gravitate towards either for reading or that you write yourself?
Fernanda: I love romance novels. Those are my like, go to cozy moments of like, you know, getting a cup of coffee and just reading the library. That’s like usually what I gravitate towards, but I also love philosophy. So I read a lot of moral philosophy books and those are kind of like my my two genres and my two personalities. It’s like I have the academic personality of philosophy and then I have the like, just like I’m just a girl moment of like I want to read a romance.
And then as to writing, I write poems. So there are multiple topics that I like I can talk about in my poems, but usually it’s like about what I’m feeling or my perceptions of certain things that pop in the moment. I’m also working on a book right now and it’s a romance novel, so I guess like to read and to write it’s romance usually.
Elijah: Oh, impressive. And how is that process of creating a novel going? Is it daunting, is it overwhelming or is it maybe like freeing and kind of an enjoyable process?
Fernanda: It’s definitely a little bit of both. At first, I think I started very randomly and just like trying my own ways and figuring it out as we as I went and didn’t really have a plan. To it. So it would definitely feel more freeing and like just, you know, I’ll write every now and again when I can. And now like that, I’ve gone like further in the book, like, the necessity for more organization and planning began to arrive, especially with school ’cause I can’t just write whenever I want to. Usually you have to write when you have time to. So it can get a little overwhelming and sometimes I have to like step aside and like, okay, I need to focus on school. But it’s definitely manageable and very enjoyable overall.
Elijah: Yeah, I think creating a novel is ’cause, I think there’s so many people I’ve met who have, you know, started or even finished the process, and for me, that’s something I can barely comprehend. I’m comfortable with like, short stories or poems. And I think, oh, I’m going to make that like five times the length. That’s crazy.
Fernanda: To me, it’s harder to write a short story, believe it or not, because I usually I go like, oh, but there’s so much else that could happen.
Elijah: Oh wow. Yeah, definitely can go both ways. Is there anything else you would want any listeners to know about? You know what you’re doing on campus or your writing or Long River Review?
Fernanda: Not really, I just want to encourage everyone to look out for the next publication of Long River Review and check out all the all our medias and definitely a lot of material, and the podcast too, that most people are going to enjoy.
Elijah: Yeah, for sure, it’s gonna be super exciting. Well, Fernanda, thank you so much for talking to me.
Fernanda: Thank you so much for having me.
Elijah: Thank you for listening along to the first episode of this year’s LRRewind Podast. I hope you enjoyed getting to know some of the Long River Review staff members who will be bringing you these podcast episodes this semester.
You can find these episodes, as well as a text transcription, on the Long River Review Website. Next, we will be interviewing some of the creative writing contest winners who will appear in this year’s edition of Long River Review.
Last, but not least, we’d like to give a huge thanks and shout-out to WHUS, UConn’s student-run radio station, who generously let us use their studio and equipment to record this podcast. See you next time.