Written by: Jenna Ulizio I have a confession to make: I was a teenage YouTuber. In my latter high school years, in the post-lockdown haze of life, a friend and I launched a film and media channel. I snuck in some videos about books, of course. Every week, we’d watch and discuss a new movie…
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Is Children’s Literature the Most Important Kind?
Written by: Kiara Korten Children’s literature is often treated like a soft introduction to “real reading,” a warm‑up before kids graduate to the serious stuff. But anyone who has ever watched a child fall headfirst into a story, eyes wide, breath held, imagination sparking, knows that children’s books are not a prelude; they’re a foundation. In…
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Keeping Your Creativity Alive in a STEM World
Written by: Nabeeha Nafey If you’re anything like me, then you too must find yourself ever-oscillating between the distinct worlds of STEM and then the eclectic one of imagination. The former is full of gears in machines that turn that help us automate, theories rooted in science that make modern…
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The Queerbait of the Century
Written by: Zoe Yoo You had to have been living under a rock for the past decade if you haven’t heard of Stranger Things, the supernatural Netflix show that flipped the world Upside Down. Throughout its nearly ten-year runtime, the show has garnered hundreds of thousands of fans dedicated to the…
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Storytelling Through TTRPGs: A Review of Wonderlust
Written by: Kaitlin Anderson One of my favorite aspects of storytelling is the diverse forms it can take. Books, shows, movies, art, and video games are all mediums that have allowed me to connect with entertaining narratives. However, there is one method of story consumption that I have always struggled…
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Cameron Winter and the Vocal as a Dissonant Instrument
Written by: Liam Smith I recall the brief chuckle and well wishes from Elijah Polance, a friend and fellow editor at Long River Review, in response to my desire to analyze Cameron Winter’s vocal style. As a self-admitted superfan of Winter’s discography, I acknowledge the difficulty of capturing his magical and layered technique. On my first listen through his 2024 solo debut, Heavy Metal, I was equally fascinated and…
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IdentityTM
Written by: Tori Grooms Capitalist greed can be beautiful. My Smiski collection has grown year by year, and I can’t deny my thrill when a coveted clothing item finally lands in my mailbox. Yet beneath this enjoyment, I find myself questioning: Have our hobbies and interests become vehicles for consumerism, turning even personal expression into…
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My Favorite One Hundred Years of Solitude Characters
Written by: Elijah Polance Last summer, I sought to end a reading slump by returning to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. On this second read, I found myself instantly enraptured by the stunning language and magical setting of Macondo, just as moved as when I first dove…
American Colonial
Written by: Cuin Reagan Third Place Winner of the 2026 Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest Something hangs In the foyer, in the stained-glass solder— Its lead seeps from the florid panes Into tepid pipe water My pale daughter Would bathe in—if I had one— And the carpeted stairs bleed With colonial…
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Ms. McLean Says I’m Underwhelmed: Fallout Season 2 Review
Written by: Temisan Ekperigin WARNING: Spoilers for Fallout Season 1 and 2. And I haven’t played the games! To say I’m disappointed in the last episode of Fallout Season 2 would be the understatement of the decade. Before I dive in, let’s recap Season 1 of Fallout. The first season is set in a retro-futuristic society that is operating after a…
