LRR 2007

Letter from the Editor

“I am determined to spread the word — as well as the poetry, fiction, artwork and all forms of creativity — across campus and beyond Storrs.”

These were some of the first words I spoke as Editor-in-Chief, my heroic creed fit for a superhero with the power to reverse imaginative and artistic injustice. Now I realize my indestructible suit still awaits me. Nonetheless, the fate of young writers and their words, as well as the hues of artistic dreamers, remain in capable hands. With or without my cape and tights, my mission remains the same: to revive the creative genius burrowed below the cattle-laden pastures and isolated dormitories of UConn.

Howard Junker, editor of the literary journal ZYZZYVA, states on the journal’s website that “Nobody grows up wanting to be an editor. A writer, yes, even in this unliterate age, but the servant of a writer, never.” Junker humorously admits the rarity of his passion for the servant role, claiming he wanted to be an editor by ten. His experience makes me reflect on mine. When I was ten, my mother found me lost in a bin of Lego pieces with blisters on my fingers, obsessively pushing pieces together. Being an editor remained low on my scale of goals while I finished my miniature replicas of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the White House.

Yet now that my passion for plastic architecture has waned, I find myself as Editor-in-Chief for the Long River Review, embracing Howard Junker’s definition of the editor’s role. These pages you are about to turn will prove the hard work, determination, and overall service we the editors have had the pleasure of sharing with the community here at the University of Connecticut. I realize that my heroic creed to rescue creative potential is a worthy one, but I cannot fulfill this goal alone. In fact, it is the readers, writers, artists, and other editors who continue to save me from a world of grayscale images and weak similes.

I surely shout Encore! And Enjoy!

—Jaclyn Allard

Prize Winners

The Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize
For the best group of poems by a graduate or undergraduate
Susan Letcher, First Prize
Jessica Rosa, Second Prize
J. Trent Nutting, Third Place Tie
Matthew Harding, Third Place Tie
The Edward R. and Frances Schreiber Collins Literary Prize
Given by David and Emily Collins for the best poem and best prose work by an undergraduate
Adam Merten, Poetry
Stephen Bendel, Prose
The Jennie Hackman Memorial Award for Short Fiction
Awarded in Memory of Jacob and Jennie Hackman for the best work of short fiction by an undergraduate
Sarah Zolan, First Prize
Timothy Bleasdale, Second Prize
Dave Hanley, Third Prize
The Aetna Undergraduate Creative Nonfiction Award
Given by the Aetna Chair in Writing to support excellence in undergraduate creative nonfiction
Michael Benedetto, First Place Tie
Alena Dillon, First Place Tie
The Long River Graduate Writing Award
For the best piece of writing in any genre by a graduate
Sean Forbes
The Long River Art Award
Teagan Smith, Art
The Gloriana Gill Art Awards
Daniel Ballestros, Drawing
Michael Stenta, Photography