Emerging writers often struggle with the urge to make their writing fit an ambiguous mold of perfection. Luckily, Jess Gallagher has advice…… More Blurring Boundaries: Challenging Our Compulsion To Categorize Writing
By Jose Paz Soldan The Fool’s Journey is represented by 22 cards in a tarot card deck and is often used in fortunetelling and symbolism in fiction. Each cards is an “arcana,” representing the different stages of life a person goes through. The 13th card is the Death arcana, which represents not an end, but… More The Beauty of a Narrative Death
By Alex Mika Last year, I enrolled in a course, as many irresponsible undergraduates do, not knowing what the hell I was getting myself into. It was called “Creative Writing: Poetry and Creative Nonfiction.” Poetry, I knew. Nonfiction, I knew. But creative nonfiction? It felt like a doublespeak term out of some Orwellian, post-truth horror… More What Is Creative Nonfiction?
From out in the outfield dirt, the crack of the bat was the only indicator a ball was rising up before dive bombing, back through the crepuscular sky. Jimmy turned and chased the echo of the sound. Go foul… Go foul… The ball, draped in a cloak of clouds, seemed to carry by a will… More Erythrophobia By Jameson Croteau (2017)
Long River Graduate Writing Award, Winner (2017) “Petra, she say there be bones,” my grandmother told me, pointing beyond me to the old castle on top of the hill. The frame of the old, Slavic structure was about as beautiful as a decaying tooth with jagged corners. A revolting brownness permeated the place. Even so,… More Crumbling Walls By Kristina Reardon (2017)
Congratulations to the 2017 winners of UConn’s English Department Creative Writing Awards! Keep an eye out for some of these pieces in the upcoming 20th anniversary edition of Long River Review this spring. The Edward R. and Frances Schreiber Collins Literary Prizes Prose Winner: Breanna Patterson, for “The Times” Honorable Mention: Stephanie Koo, for “Where… More UConn Creative Writing Contest Winners!
By: Jameson Croteau
Someone told me— right before my transatlantic flight—that Englishmen hate confrontation. Flash forward to my writing internship in London and I have an ex-MI5 agent, veins popping purple through the Skype window on my 16-inch laptop screen, about to burst from my criticism of his second to-be-published novel. His vitriol, hardly avoiding curses, were being… More How to Surive an Attack from an Ex-M15 Agent: Eleven Steps to Getting the Most out of Your Writing Workshop By: Jameson Croteau
By: Breanna Patterson
I’m an amateur writer. I’ve clawed out my own precious corner of my school’s Creative Writing Program and it is in this space that I am continuously attempting to prove myself. That’s the issue with writers: we sit in front of our keyboards, we psychoanalyze our own characters, and we try to develop ourselves through… More Musings of a Curious Newbie By: Breanna Patterson
Interview by Steph Koo I had the opportunity to speak with Nikki Rubin, LRR alum, survivor of UCONN medical school, newly-minted doctor extraordinaire, over video chat this past weekend. Our talk ranged from writing experiences, to her decision to choose OB/GYN as her specialty, to my own anxieties over choosing the pre-medical path. Here are… More Reflections on Writing, Medicine, and More with Nikki Rubin, former LRR Poetry Editor by Stephanie Koo (2016)
By Therese Masotta
To The Current Me, This morning I woke up with you, like I always do, and it was early and you were just as confused as you were the night before you went to sleep, and everything seemed surreal as it always does. It’s the last week of classes and we’re about to graduate. As… More Graduating as an English Major: An Open Letter to Myself Right Now By Therese Masotta