Written by: Elijah Polance Discussions about favorite “three album runs” in music are common among online music forums and influencers. As the title suggests, it explores the three best consecutive albums released by an artist. For me, no artist is more deserving of the crown of succession than the indie…

My Journey Into Liking The Beatles
Written by: Jules Dowling I’ve grown up listening to The Beatles whether I would have liked to or not. I’ve heard them on the radio, in commercials, in my parents’ car, or from the speaker in my brother’s room. I grew to like some of their greatest hits like “Blackbird,”…

James Baldwin on Love and Living with Light
Written by: Charlotte Ungar So often when considering the penetrating prose of James Baldwin do we forget his legacy of love. In part, this omission is because love has never been convenient for anyone. It is also common, as readers, for many of us to dismiss the selectivity of our…
fairybreeze
By Anh Lee 2nd place winner of the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize We last beyond a century we are forgotten smelling of indigo bodies and abandoned plains enshrouded in sand We feel our desires flicker and wriggle perimeters kissed by thunder, shaped by doves and caressed by lingering legs We…
Newton Considers the Still Life
By Charlie M. Case Winner of The Jennie Hackman Memorial Prize for Short Fiction (1st) Some kind of sweet thing takes hold of you in the late summer. It’s not much. You take it for nostalgia—standing in the pick-your-own orchard, your family and best friend flitting about selecting perfect…

A Year In Review
Written By Ally LeMaster A Year In Review: Long River Review has been a literary tradition at the University of Connecticut since 1997. This week, our staff published Issue 27, which highlights a diversity of stories ranging from topics of the generational impact of immigration to the…
Aromantic’s Apotropaic
By Charlie M. Case (with a borrowed line from Nicky Beer) Winner of The Edward R. and Frances Schreiber Collins Literary Awards (Poetry) This is not something anyone can eke out of me, so stop asking. Put your hands on me and don’t misinterpret—let me touch you only so we…
The Cardinal Girl
By Sarah Kelly Winner of The Edward R. and Frances Schreiber Collins Literary Awards (Prose) There was a cardinal who used to perch in the ash tree next to my apartment building. I could look out my window in the morning and see it as I made another ration of…
Displaced
By Zeynep Özer Winner of The Long River Review Graduate Writing Award Three Women That’s when they started talking. Not when the man with the gun walked into the puddle of blood. Puddle of his wife’s blood. Not when the puddle turned cold turned light painted sirens red and blue. But when…
First Motel
By Krista Mitchell Winner of The Jennie Hackman Memorial Prize for Short Fiction (3rd Place) The First Motel Off the Highway Bethlehem, NH. August 1956. She held a hand to her forehead to shield her bloodshot eyes as she turned off the highway, the windshield glittering with flecks of…