LRR 2014

Letter from the Editor

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
–Elie Wiesel

Love or hate the selections in this journal but do not be indifferent to them.

This year, Long River Review followed tradition and divided our 21 undergraduate editors into poetry, fiction, and nonfiction panels. We read hundreds of anonymous University of Connecticut undergraduate and graduate submissions from the Creative Writing Contests and from email entries. We narrowed our choices and then broke with tradition: all 21 editors read all of the top choices. We then discussed – and amicably fought – for hours in person and online, through bitter cold, snow, and several weather-related cancellations. The Design Team similarly pored over the art submissions. If it is contained herein, then most if not all of our staff were willing to fight for it. This year’s issue is therefore a compilation of passion.

LRR sought and will continue to seek out diverse, socially and politically conscious pieces that question the notions of creative impetus, intimacy, and historical “progress.” Though published in 1970, recent English translations of Syrian writer Zakaryya Tamer’s post-apocalyptic pieces written during a period of coups are eerily reflective of a political era that in part laid the groundwork for the country’s current state of unrest. Despite our best attempts to assign particular themes to these pieces, they (beautifully, thankfully) elude us.

Though we enjoy the thrill of a chase, evasion is not necessarily the goal. Pieces like “2010 Hiding” sweep us into a forceful discussion of social justice through the use of blatant interrogatives and subtle rhythm. Then we have works like “Takers and Leavers” that fall somewhere between scream and whisper. The story does not openly demand that we discuss the various factors that play into the cycle of poverty, yet its narrative plants a seed for such discussion.

We simultaneously hunger for work reflecting the inherent duality of the human condition. This is apparent in Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah’s “Meditations on Absence.” Its speaker uses form – question marks, spaces, and a blurring between poetry/prose and fiction/nonfiction – to convey the inadequacy of perceiving identity as fully cohesive. The essay “Integral Characteristics of Being Human” and artwork such as “Boundaries” are also prime sources of such dualistic reflection. We purposefully fragmented “Integral” for cohesive and creative effect. The desire to create arises from a need to make sense of what makes us human. Above all the need to create stems from an inner desire to elude death by leaving behind presumably immortal portions of ourselves. We are decaying, but we like to believe that our tangible words and images will remain constant on the printed page. If LRR is a beating human heart then “Integral” is our connective tissue.

We are a small journal, yes, but we have large aspirations: a desire to ultimately go national, to obtain a broader readership in print and online, to be more and more and more in and of our increasingly global community. We admit to the pitfalls of getting too personal and yet we ask you to come close. Closer still. Touch it – the squirming, writhing thing. It is the single most integral human characteristic.

–Krisela Karaja

Prize Winners

The Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize
Given by the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., for the best group of poems by a graduate or undergraduate
Miller Oberman, First Place
Kate Monica, Second Place Tie
Amber West, Second Place Tie
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
Julie Bartoli, First Place
Kyle Piscioniere, Second Place
Amy Martin, Third Place
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
Kate Monica, Poetry
Julie Bartoli, Prose
The Aetna Creative Nonfiction Award
Given by the Aetna Chair in Writing to support excellence in undergraduate creative nonfiction
Michael Anthony Jefferson II, Undergraduate First Place
Danilo Machado, Undergraduate Second Place
Abigail Fagan, Graduate First Place Three-way Tie
Erick Piller, Graduate First Place Three-way Tie
Kristina Reardon, Graduate First Place Three-way Tie
The Aetna Children’s Literature Award
Given by the Aetna Chair in Writing to support excellence in undergraduate children’s literature
David Smith
The Long River Graduate Writing Award
For the best piece of writing in any genre by a graduate student
Kerry Carnahan
The Long River Art Award
Rebecca Allen, Photography
Gloriana Gill Art Awards
John Kelleher, Photography
Michael Karpiel, Illustration