10 Examples of Why Rappers are among the Best Writers of the 21st Century By: Sten Spinella LRR, March 5, 2017February 8, 2025 Last year, one of my blog posts for the Long River Review claimed that hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar is America’s leading public intellectual. In sports journalism terms, that would be called an “electric” or “hot” take. Continuing in that direction this year, I’d like to posit a deeply held conviction… Continue Reading
The Sputter: The Monster Under Every Writer’s Bed (and how you can fight it) By: Amanda McCarthy LRR, March 3, 2017February 8, 2025 It is nine-thirty on a Monday night. Usually, you’re not a last-minute-poet. But tonight, your midnight deadline is drowning under pages and pages of beginning lines that, at this point, sound more like the humming of a garbage disposal than poetry. You do really well under pressure, so generally this… Continue Reading
Becoming the Writer That I’ve Always Been By: Julia Alexander LRR, March 1, 2017February 8, 2025 Ever since I could read and write, I have been infatuated with storytelling. I remember the desk in my childhood bedroom overflowing with half-filled notebooks and the scraps of torn out pages. My handwriting, barely legible to anyone but myself, was scrawled across papers that were stalked high like mountains…. Continue Reading
How to Surive an Attack from an Ex-M15 Agent: Eleven Steps to Getting the Most out of Your Writing Workshop By: Jameson Croteau LRR, February 27, 2017February 8, 2025 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,… Continue Reading
Korean Jesus By: Taylor Caron LRR, February 24, 2017February 8, 2025 I would often relay my father’s life story to the first graders that would congregate around my desk at school. Even as a child, I understood that the truth of a tale should never interfere with the drama of storytelling. I remember seeing my teacher coming over to chastise me… Continue Reading
Want to Write? Get Talking. By Benjamin Schultz LRR, February 21, 2017February 8, 2025 Like most people, I can never pass up a good story. I’m sure that you are no different. Stories have always been able to captivate the human psyche– whether spoken, written, or edited together. Even that Super Bowl commercial that made you laugh is telling a story (albeit one 30… Continue Reading
When is a Good Time to Stop Writing? Spoiler Alert: Probably Never. By Emily Catenzaro LRR, February 20, 2017February 8, 2025 On the subject of perseverance in writing, a question that may linger in many writers’ minds is: what is the correct timetable for getting published? If your goal is to publish a book of prose or poetry, sell a screenplay, or land a job at a prominent periodical, you may… Continue Reading
How to Read a Book (in Case You Didn’t Know) By Sabrina O’Brien LRR, February 19, 2017February 8, 2025 People often find that I am the most unconventional of English majors. No, I don’t write a lot; no I don’t read novels in a day; no I don’t like Hemingway (which is a comment that has earned me many looks from my fellow students); if you want a story… Continue Reading
My Inconsistent Affair with Literature By: Parker Gregory Shpak LRR, February 14, 2017February 8, 2025 My relationship with literature has been inconsistent at best. As much as I would like to pass myself off as the prodigal son of the modern literati, heralding the return of the writer-artist to the public eye, it would be dishonest to posture as anything resembling that figure. When I… Continue Reading
The Inconvenience of Inspiration By: Mairead Loschi LRR, February 12, 2017February 8, 2025 Ever since I was young, inspiration has been my fickle friend. Let me set the scene: it is a late August evening, just creeping toward dusk. My sister and I are playing on the front lawn of my Grandma’s summer home. My mom remembers me rushing in through the sliding… Continue Reading