For our first event of the 2009-2010 academic year, Doug Anderson visited UConn on September 15, 2009 to read from his new memoir, Keep Your Head Down, published by W.W. Norton in July.

Tonight, the Long River Reading Series returns as the newly invented Long River Live!, a multi-genre exhibition of performances and visual arts, at 7 p.m. in the CLAS Stern Lounge. Poetry by D. Michael Jones, puppetry by Michael Cavanaugh, music by Joe and Kali Therrien, and visual art by Sarah McKay, as well as an open mic for all art forms. Please join us, and bring some of your own work to share.

This Thursday, 6 p.m. at the UConn Co-op, Heidi Pitlor will be visiting UConn as part of the Writers Who Edit, Editors Who Write series. Pitlor is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, where she worked for ten years. Starting with the 2007 volume, she became the new series editor for The Best American Short Stories, working alongside celebrated authors such as Stephen King and Salman Rushdie. Her debut novel, The Birthdays, was published to wide critical acclaim in 2006. Publishers Weekly describes it as “rich in symbolism and a strong sense of place,” while Boston Magazine notes that the novel “confronts some of the biggest questions of our daily lives… but refuses to rest on one single answer.”

The Long River Review/CW UConn will also be accepting submissions for a new poetry contest from 9/28-10/9. More details at longriverreview.com.

C.D. Wright, our spring 2009 Aetna Poet-in-Residence, will spend three days at UConn (February 9th, 10th, and 11th), meeting with students for one-on-one tutorials and giving a public reading on Tuesday, February 10th (Konover Auditorium, 7 pm).

A major figure in contemporary American poetry, C.D. Wright is the author of twelve critically-acclaimed books. Her numerous honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has taught literature at Brown University since 1983, where she is now the Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English. In 1994, she was appointed to a five-year term as poet laureate of Rhode Island.

Wright is well known for her uncompromising, often radical shifts in style and subject matter. She has been called “a uniquely unpredictable poet” by the New York Times. A native of the Arkansas Ozarks, Wright wrote her early poems in what she calls “idiom Ozarkia,” a style strongly rooted in the narratives and dialect of her childhood home. In recent years, Wright’s work has become increasingly experimental. Her latest work, Rising, Falling, Hovering, explores many of the most difficult and pressing issues of modern American life. As she delves into the Iraq War, illegal immigration, and corporate human rights violations, Wright pushes her readers not merely to remember events, but to understand them, and perhaps hold themselves accountable.

The Creative Writing Program is happy to announce the winners of the 2008-2009 Awards

Wallace Stevens Poetry Contest (awarded for the best group of poems by either graduate or undergraduate):

First Prize ($1000)

Sean Frederick Forbes

Second Prize ($500)

Lori Carriere

Third Prize ($300)

Nicole Rubin

Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Larkin

Honorable Mention: Jennifer Orlando

Jennie Hackman Memorial Award for Short Fiction (awarded in memory of Jacob and Jennie Hackman for the best works of undergraduate short fiction)

First Prize ($1000)

“Goodnight, Jack” by Valerie Doughty

Second Prize ($300)

“The Turtle Problem” by Miranda DePoi

Third Prize ($200)

“Deer” by Daniel Gregory

Collins Literary Prizes* (awarded in memory of Edward R. and Frances S. Collins for the best undergraduate literary works, fiction and poetry)

Fiction Prize($1400)

“Nahariya” by Emily Lyon

Honorable mention: “The Life, The Meaning” by Joseph Welch

Honorable mention: “Where All the Deer Have Gone” by Daniel Gregory

Poetry Prize($1400)

“What the Body Does” by Jennifer Orlando

Honorable mention: “Ache Her” and “Monday the Once” by Elizabeth Larkin

Honorable mention: “The Life and Death of an Indoor Ladybug” by Abdul Choudhry

Honorable mention: “A Small But Decent Collation” by Michael Seal

*The outside judge for the 2008-09 Collins Prizes contest was Steve Almond.

Aetna Creative Nonfiction Awards (awarded for the best graduate and undergraduate works of creative nonfiction)

Graduate Prize ($500)

“Corporality” by Zara Rix

Undergraduate Prize ($500)

“Memories Fade” by Michael Schrage

Aetna Graduate Creative Works-in-Progress Grant ($1000)

“Suicide Contest” - a novel in progress by Gordon Fraser

Long River Graduate Writing Award ($250) (awarded for the best piece of creative work in any genre written by a graduate student)

“Serial Monogamy” by Gordon Fraser

Honorable Mention: “Ruth’s Pearls” by Suzanne Ondrus

Edwin Way Teale Nature Writing Award ($100) (awarded for the best essays that explore the relationships of human beings to the natural world)

“Continental Drift” by Gordon Fraser

The winning entries for the Wallace Stevens Prize, The Collins Literary Prize, the Jenny Hackman Award, the Aetna Undergraduate Nonfiction Award, and the Long River Review Graduate Writing Award will appear in the next issue of The Long River Review.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the judges and to everyone who submitted work for the contests. We hope you’ll try again next year.

The Countdown Begins!

The Long River Review, UCONN’s literary magazine is currently collecting submissions for the 2009 edition. Works of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry are accepted.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 13th.

All guidelines can be found at www.longriverreview.com

The collection boxes are located in CLAS: one in the main English office on the 2nd floor and another in the Freshmen English office on the 1st floor. Online entries may be submitted at www.longriverreview.com.

With only a couple weeks remaining, make sure you get your submissions in for a chance to be published!

Steve Almond visited UConn last month as our Aetna Writer-in-Residence for the fall semester.  During his three day visit, Steve workshopped with students, conducted a question and answer session and went to lunch with students and faculty. Steve ended his stay Thursday night with a wonderful reading from his latest work, (Not That You Asked).

Steve Almond at UConn: October 8, 2008 from Long River Review on Vimeo.