Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!: An Introduction

Hello readers! Welcome to my first ever blog post as a River editor! In case you have not read my bio, allow me to introduce myself once more. My name is Gail Bello, I am originally from Waltham Massachusetts and I am a Junior Creative Writing major and Theater minor here at the University of Maine at Farmington. I write fiction, poetry and I am getting into playwriting. I am so excited to be a River editor this semester and read all of the work that gets submitted!

I know for some of you it is going to be weird adjusting to new voices and viewpoints on the blog. You might be asking yourselves “Hey where did Meagan and Richard go? They were awesome! Who are these new people?’ I totally get it, Meagan and Richard are awesome and they did an exceptional job as editors last semester, leaving myself and my co-editor Willy with big shoes to fill. Lucky for us we have a warm and welcoming community that I am sure is eager for new content after our long winter hiatus. So enough about the past, let me tell you what you can expect from me for the future of this blog!

You may be wondering if this blog will have a theme. Well if you didn’t catch it in my bio or you didn’t get my blatant Cabaret reference for the title of this post, I am a HUGE theater person! Theater has always been a part of my life whether I was an audience member, a performer or even a writer. Theater has been the catalyst for some of the most memorable experiences of my life with some of the best people I have ever met. That’s why I would like to use the blog to discuss things I have learned and observed in the theater world. It is something near and dear to me that I would have so much fun using this platform to discuss. The blog’s official name will be Thespian Thoughts.

But wait there’s more!

In addition to the usual written blogs I would like to try something new. Last year I had the privilege of taking an audio essay class in which I learned how to record and edit audio. I would like to use the skills I acquired in that class to every once in a while do an audio essay podcast style blog post that I would like to call The Typecast (see what I did there?). A transcript of the podcast would be provided underneath so that it is accessible to all. I feel this will be a great way for readers to get to know me better as an editor and remind other audio essay creators that their work is welcome!

I hope you enjoyed this post and are looking forward to what is to come, I know I am!

Thank for spending this time with me.

-Gail