LRR 2023

Long River Review is about collecting stories. We publish pieces that move us, freely and without limitation. This year, our team reflects with gratitude on our decision not to choose a concrete theme for this edition of our journal. As you turn these pages, you’ll instead find that our collection rises and falls in an arc.

This edition opens with a reflection on art. Then, it moves to a series of pieces grounded in the natural world. From nature, we move to the meaning of the written word. The core of our journal centralizes on womanhood, telling stories about mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and female love. As our journal progresses, it takes a deep dive into darker elements of the world we live in, giving us space to explore broken relationships and fragmented people.

We conclude, however, with a poem that reflects on the importance of communication. It is a powerful reminder to listen, to speak, and to be heard.

Here at Long River Review, we believe in communication with the people around us, on a small and large scale. This is why we value the sharing of stories. Art bleeds into life, and the act of storytelling opens up both the teller and the reader to belonging and understanding.

Our concluding poem speaks of “Novels like forests.” As you enter the forest that follows this letter, know that so much care went into the process of seeking these unique pieces that compromise this new generation of the Long River Review.

In the fall, I was honored to serve as the first-ever Long River Review intern. Thanks to the social media campaigns we launched as part of this new internship program, our volume of submissions nearly doubled the number we received for consideration last year.

So, this spring, we, the Long River Review editorial team, had our work cut out for us. We spent days and nights reading every submission that came our way. Though the choices we made were not easy, this journal was a labor of love. We believe wholeheartedly in the powerful truth conveyed by our selected pieces.

While you will perceive cohesion in this journal, you will also find the blending of contradictory emotions. Happiness prompted by the beauty of the world around us blurs into introspection, which spirals down paths of growth, love, fear, and awakening. These feelings enrich and deepen one another. Together, they encompass the complexity of the lived experiences we wish to share with you in this year’s edition of Long River Review.