Editor: Tom Chandler
Fiction Editor: Tom Roach
Assistant Fiction Editor: Jeff Cabusao
Managing Editor: Kimberly Keyes
Associate Editor: Lucie Koretsky
Student Editor: Sara Elder
Assistant Student Editors: Carmela Morales, Adedayo Adebiyi, Amanda Spaziano
Design & Layout: Rebecca Chandler www.chandler-design.com
Cover Art: Tom Chandler
BLR Webmaster: John Botte
Editor’s Note
Thank you for picking up this edition of the Bryant Literary Review. Each year we receive admissions from across the world, but this issue is special for two reasons: this is our 15th anniversary edition, and it includes work from the current and past two poets laureate of Rhode Island – Rick Benjamin, Lisa Starr, and Tom Chandler.
Fifteen years is an extraordinary run for a literary journal, and the fact that the BLR is still going strong is a real credit to our staff and the support we receive from Bryant University. We are happy to be a part of yet another year of promoting creativity and literary excellence.
Creativity is what makes us human. We create, we imagine, we tell stories. We create so we can understand the world around us. Creativity is not necessarily a special talent, but rather an ability within us all. Over the years I’ve been a student at Bryant, one passion has always stuck with me through my courses, extracurricular activities and jobs: making sure creativity survives. I’ve always understood how important it is in everything we do.
Some students fail to see how creativity fits into their education. They don’t realize that it will make them better job candidates and happier people as well. But fortunately I have found people who do
believe in creativity’s importance. I have discovered secret wells of it everywhere, one of which is the Bryant Literary Review.
The BLR has kept my creativity alive during my time at Bryant. For two years I have read the magazine and was inspired by the work of others, and for two years I have worked as an editor and have found happiness here.
I would like to thank everyone involved with the BLR, especially Professors Tom Roach & Tom Chandler, and 6the assistant student editors who have made this 15th anniversary edition possible. These are people dedicated and passionate in their efforts to keep creativity alive in the harsh environment of the literary world.
I hope each of you taps into the creativity within yourself, inspired perhaps by these stories and poems.
Sara Elder
BLR Student Editor