A Literary Magazine Sponsored by The University of Maine at Farmington
The River is a representation of the Sandy River itself, which runs alongside the university and what inspired the name of the journal. It is a constantly flowing, ebbing and surging, body of content filled with contemporary work. To submit to The River please visit our Submissions page to the left or e mail TheRiverEditors@gmail.com directly.
By Emelia Cyr a deer mistakes the heat of headlights for the heat of the sun i’m a deer in headlights running from the humming of a car coming around … Continue Reading “a deer mistakes the heat of headlights for the heat of the sun” and “feel me now”
By Visio Roughton For thousands of years, humans have been writing things down on everything from clay tablets to books. Of these many written works, one of the most intriguing … Continue Reading Elaborate Fake or Unsolved Mystery – Exploring the Voynich Manuscript
By Visio Roughton Molasses has a long, rich history in American society. A byproduct contrived from sugarcane refining, it was a common ingredient in many households. It was a cheaper … Continue Reading When Boston Harbor was Stained Brown – The 1919 Boston Molasses Flood
By Zac Holt WINNER OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST As I walked through the wide open desert, the blue skies grew dark with black clouds. There wasno … Continue Reading Of the Desert and my Soul
Anabelle Taff RUNNER UP OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST “It has no value, sweetheart. Find something pretty,” Mom insists.Under the waves, it is shining up at me, … Continue Reading Sea Glass
Kylee Walton RUNNER UP OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST By Author From what I have gathered, Wednesdays do not produce good art. More often than not on … Continue Reading Wednesday Cat Hunt
By Visio Roughton Corporations will often skirt around rules in the name of turning a profit. Oftentimes, the dangerous conditions that come from this will go unchecked until tragedy strikes. … Continue Reading The Sampoong Mall Collapse – How Greed Led to South Korea’s Largest Peacetime Disaster
By Visio Roughton There are very few places on our planet today that have been untouched by the general human population, and this reality has been true for many years. … Continue Reading What an Island Can Teach About Life – The Fascinating Case of Surtsey Island
By Chris Dungey Well, of course you’d want to place heated objects— stones, angle-irons fresh off the coals, or hot water bottles beneath the sheets, if you’re going to leave … Continue Reading Closed Windows
By John Nizalowski Pecos Pueblo Rattlesnake There it lay— wary, yet quiescent. People gathered round to view the splendid reptile. One tourist in shorts and a Cape May t-shirt stepped … Continue Reading “Pecos Pueblo Rattlesnake”, “Cemetery Soul”, “The Aged Gods”, “Eternity”, and “Saturday Afternoon”
By Mark Belair MILL HOUSING His was a broken-down rental where our street’s dead end met the mill’s chain-link fence, a house notorious for its sequence of broken-down tenants. Mine … Continue Reading “MILL HOUSING” and “ROADSIDE POND”
By Zac Holt To Eurydice I’m going to miss you when I am no longer yours. Not that I was ever yours to begin with, but I’ve dreamt of you … Continue Reading To Eurydice
By Lynn Wolfe happiness is fickle just yesterday i was laughing, dancing in the sun, feeling excited about the future. i didn’t think about you. now today, that happiness has … Continue Reading “Happiness is fickle” and “Dear Woman”
By Marc Swan Muzzle Velocity Some would say chipping away but leveling with a blow torch is closer to the truth Just over a month and the world we once … Continue Reading “Muzzle Velocity”, “In the year before the last year” and “Any street”
By John Grey Where I’ve Been I was in a diner and morning clientele were a cross-section of inner city lowlifes. The waitress’s name was Sally and she spilled coffee … Continue Reading “Where I’ve Been”, “The Coal Miner” and “Prism”
By River Potter A woman by the name of Elizabeth Wurtzel once said, “A human being can survive almost anything as long as she sees the end in sight But … Continue Reading Depression, a Poem