LRR 2016

Letter from the Editor

To the reader,

Do not exist and do not breathe and do not think. These people, these places, these moments will do that for you. Slide and stutter in feeling with us. Feel/Forget/Freeze.

Struggle to turn the pages – they are slippery with gross emotions, they are slippery. It is tempting to try to find the authors in these pages. Don’t. Fidget, reader. You will feel your own history pouring through the windows here. That is okay, that is safe.

Open this edition cautiously/bravely/blushing and with the knowledge that your face will reflect back somewhere in these pages. Do not exist and do not breathe and do not think. You are slippery and we do not want to scare you away.

Feel close and frustrated with us in the way that filters through these people and images and demands our chests to pull closer. We want to grab on your wrists and forearms as you read and stumble in this beauty as we have/we do/we will.

How grateful I am to have you here, the ability to offer this to you. I do not want to touch this all away. So let us whisper softly yes and enter into the 2016 edition of the Long River Review.

–Shannon Hearn

Prize Winners

The Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize
Given by The Hartford, for the best group of poems by a graduate or undergraduate
Eleanor Reeds, First Place
Emily Kraus, Second Place
Erick Piller, Third Place
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
Rebecca Hill, First Place
Máiréad Loschi, Second Place
Sten Spinella, 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
Nicholas DiBenedetto, Poetry
Traci Parker, Prose
The Aetna Creative Nonfiction Award
Given by the Aetna Chair in Writing to support excellence in undergraduate creative nonfiction
Stephanie Koo, Undergraduate First Place
Kristina Reardon, Graduate First Place
The Aetna Translation Award
Kerry Carnahan
The Aetna Children’s Literature Award
Given by the Aetna Chair in Writing to support excellence in undergraduate children’s literature
Kathryn Coto
The Long River Graduate Writing Award
For the best piece of writing in any genre by a graduate student
Eleanor Reeds
The Long River Art Award
Omar Taweh
Gloriana Gill Art Awards
Hunter Kelley, Photography
Mary Wynn, Illustration

Staff

Poetry Panelists:
Shannon Hearn
Allison McLellan
Christopher McDermott
Nicholas DiBenedetto
Alexandra Cichon
Hattie Wilcox

Fiction Panelists:
Theresa Kurzawa
Rebecca Nelson
Emily Zimmer
Laura Ruttan
Emily Cantor

Creative Nonfiction Panelists:
Sten Spinella
Asiya Haouchine
Diana Koehm
Therese Masotta
Emily Catenzaro

Designers:
Franklin Canales
Vanessa Hopkins
Hunter Kelley
Nicole McDonald
Raeanne Nuzzo
Brigid Reale
Samantha Weiss

Gallery

Staff Bios

Shannon Hearn loves her four sisters, Cristina Yang, and listening to the Smiths. She’s a double major in journalism and English with a concentration in creative writing at the University of Connecticut. Shannon was previously published in Long River Review and has work forthcoming in Words Dance Publishing. Follow her on Twitter @t00_shay.

Theresa Kurzawa is a senior English major with an obsession over all things comic-book and superhero related. She is currently pursuing an MA in Education and likes expensive cheeses, dogs, and the ocean.

Asiya Haouchine is a senior English and Journalism double major. She is a self-proclaimed foodie who hopes to write for a food magazine when she isn’t working as editor for a literary magazine or publishing company. Her passions are human rights, literature, food, science fiction TV, and annoying her cat. Follow her on Twitter @AsiyaJournalism.

Therese Masotta is a senior English major/Psychology minor with a concentration in Creative Writing. She has had a very gouda time in college, and is excited to be part of the Long River Review to cap it all off. In addition to this, she is the Public Relations intern at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, and a waitress at Dog Lane Cafe. If you can brie-lieve it, she is also the president of the Rolling Tones, an on campus a cappella group! Grilled cheese constitutes most of her diet and, unfortunately, she can’t do anything swiss-out making bad puns. Follow her on Twitter @tbonemasotta.

Kate Monica is a senior majoring in English who likes strawberry ice cream and conspiracy theory documentaries. She has been published in periodicals including The Quietus, Potluck Mag, Hart House Review, Alien Mouth, TheNewerYork, Electric Cereal, Hobart, and others. Her first book of poems, Nervous Universe, was released by Electric Cereal in summer 2015. She hopes to write more books and live in the woods and be a farmer or something, whatever, she doesn’t know.

Stephanie Koo is a third year student majoring in English and Biology. Her passions include writing short stories and essays, pretending to know how to sew, and organizing things. Her current long term goal is to become a doctor who writes and produces creative content, and to live with dogs on a self sufficient farm (in case the world ends and there are no supermarkets).

Carleton Whaley appreciates when people don’t pry into his personal affairs, thank you very much, but if you must know he is a senior English major at the University of Connecticut, and has the privilege of working with the Long River Review as Creative Nonfiction Editor. So there. Follow him on Twitter @CarletonWhaley.

Sten Spinella spends his time writing about falling for the wrong people and occasionally other topics including social justice, family dynamics, wealth (or lack thereof), dreams (or failed dreams), and the futility of giving a fuck. He is a junior English/political science major at the University of Connecticut. Follow him on Twitter @SSpinella927.

Nicholas DiBenedetto is a senior at the University of Connecticut double-majoring in EEB (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and English. A member of the poetry panel of LRR 2016, he can frequently be found trying to justify picking food up off the ground past the five second rule “just this one time.”

Emily Catenzaro is a senior English major with a concentration in creative writing. She spends so much time in ice skating rinks that she has mastered the art of the fake Russian accent. When not skating, speaking German, or Snapchatting, she enjoys contemplating the future and changing her mind about her plans every day, a hundred times a day.

Alexandra (Ally) Cichon is a senior English major who loves breakfast food and listening to Serge Gainsbourg on her record player. Sometimes she pretends she is Carey Mulligan from An Education, but usually when she is just her normal self, she enjoys writing poetry, eating oatmeal and looking up pictures of dogs. Her favorite cheese is Gruyere, her favorite poet Sylvia Plath, and her favorite rapper is Kendrick Lamar. She is currently on the poetry panel and will be pursuing a MA in Education after graduation. One day she hopes to move to Paris. Follow her on Twitter @allyci.

Diana Koehm is a junior majoring in Human Rights and English with a Creative Writing concentration. She has an on-again/ off-again relationship with sleeping, writing, and going to the gym. In between forcing herself through these activities she also enjoys curling under blankets with her dog and convincing herself that the world doesn’t exist. Check out her website, Fervid Femme.

Emily Zimmer is a junior double majoring in Speech Language Hearing Science and English with a minor in Psychology at the University of Connecticut. When she’s not hiding away in a cubby in the library, you can find her baking cookies, forcing her friends to let her edit their papers, or napping. She hopes to one day be a pediatric speech pathologist with a focus on literacy development… And also plans to adopt as many pit bulls as possible. Follow her on Twitter @Emily_Zimmerr.

Allison McLellan is an English major/Communication minor with a concentration in creative writing. She enjoys playing outdated music on guitar and turning her daily life into an internal stand-up monologue. One day she hopes to be a rich and famous TV writer so that she can afford her lavish lifestyle of ordering pizza every night (unfortunately, cooking is not as glam as Chopped makes it seem).

Emily Cantor is a senior English major/ Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies minor with a concentration in Creative Writing. At any given point you might find her hiding in a tree, singing along to the radio too loudly, or complaining that she isn’t petting a dog right now. She is currently on a life-long quest to find and consume free pizza.

Rebecca Nelson is a sophomore Biology major and nap enthusiast. She has an irrational fear of people in mascot costumes and a rational fear of climate change. An oil tycoon in a mascot costume is pretty much her worst nightmare.