What TRR Has Been Up To

It’s almost midterm, and the TRR team has been busy!

A couple of weeks ago, Stegner Lecturer Kimi Eisele visited our class, and we had a fantastic discussion about writing and publishing. If you missed the lecture, you can watch it on the Division of Arts, Letters, and Learning’s YouTube channel.

Several team members are also hard at work on a special issue of TRR called Rising Rivers, which we are collaborating on with our friends at Trestle Creek Review. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be heading up to North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene to meet with the TCR team and to visit some local high schools. This special issue will feature prose, poetry, and art from high school students and is slated for release at the end of February 2027 during our 4th annual “Be a Creative Writing Student for a Day” Writing Conference. This conference is open to all regional high school students. If you have a high school student in your life who you think may be interested in the conference or in contributing to the special issue, they can submit here.

And, finally, TRR has just finished reading submissions for Issue 61, which will be released in January. Today, in class, the team did the layout for the issue, and we’ll begin copyediting in a couple of weeks. We’re so excited about this issue and can’t wait to share it with you!

We’re now reading for Issue 62 and are looking for submissions—especially fiction and creative nonfiction. We’d love to read your work. For one month only (Oct. 16 – Nov. 16), you can submit to us directly via email and bypass our Submittable submission fee. Simply email us at trr@lcsc.edu and write “Oct/Nov Submissions” in the subject line. We hope to hear from you soon.

The Last Book I Read: A Recommendation From Joe Wilkins

It’s been years since I’ve read a book of narrative nonfiction as honest, compassionate, and wise as Michael Copperman’s Seeking Kenny: A Wrestler’s Journey. A journalistic investigation, a tender biography, a wise meditation on sport, persistence, faith, the natural world, and the search for meaning—this is a book I’m going to hand to my sixteen-year-old son. This is a book, I’m going to tell him, that will help you become a man, become a better man. 

-Joe Wilkins, author of The Entire Sky

Joe Wilkins’s collection of essays, Every Sky at Home: Essays on Landscape and Family, is forthcoming in September 2026.


http://joewilkins.org

https://joewilkinswriter.substack.com

From the Community: Tate Jessup

My name is Tate, and I have served as LCWR’s station manager for the past year, working alongside station advisor Ian Tippets and music manager Rose Lafser. I oversee daily operations, assist DJs, and research music. When I first began college, I was discouraged from becoming involved in campus clubs and events. My experience with LCWR has shown me the value of getting involved, not just to find a place but to search for things I may not always get to search for. Over the past year I’ve found a connection to the music, unfiltered thoughts and the people who still believe a good song can change the course of an afternoon. LCWR serves as more than a form of artistic expression on campus—it becomes part of the soundtrack of this rare and fleeting moment of our lives. There’s something about college radio that never quite sits still. It’s here for a while, then it belongs to someone else—always passing through, I always hope to leave the door open for whoever comes next.

From the Archives: Ron McFarland

Winter 2001

AN IDAHO MAN SPEAKS OUT ON SWANS

They glide on water and they migrate south
and north, they mate for life, they
whistle when they die. We have no time
for myths in Idaho but take much pride
in being America’s state of mind,
symbol of what the world would like
of course to be most like.

What is it to us that they haul the chariot
of Aphrodite (if once, then always) or that
one of them rapes a beautiful white woman
named Leda (if once, then unceasingly)?
Here in Idaho such art annoys us,
gets in the way of ordinary things that count
like mineral deposits, lumber, cattle, wheat.


A man who writes of swans, or counts them
spiraling out of sight, or dreams of riding them
into another world is not our kind of man.
That kind of man would breach the dams
and drive the rivers from their banks.
That kind of man would bankrupt folks
whose fathers greened the deserts, irrigated,
swept the sagebrush back for beets and spuds.

We don’t resent the whistlers in their place,
in fact have placed some in Sun Valley at the lodge.
The women like them and the kids.

Biography

I’m working on a chapbook I may call “Dancing to ‘Georgia on My Mind.” Georgia (Tiffany) & I are thinking of a book of poems we’ve written in recent years on similar subjects or themes. I’m a frequent contributor of short essays about Idaho to IDAHO Magazine. Georgia & I have recently been reviewing poetry submissions for the South Carolina Review.

The Last Book I Read: A Recommendation From Tara Karr Roberts

The Origin of Ava by Annie Lampman

LC State alumna Annie Lampman’s brilliant new novel, The Origin of Ava, interweaves the stories of three unforgettable characters: Ava, a grieving ornithologist chasing birds and comfort in Ecuador; Ezra, a recently incarcerated young man seeking to distance himself from his painful past; and Greer, an 11-year-old girl running for her life through the Idaho wilderness with a dog and two llamas in tow. Lampman’s rich details and deft explorations of complex emotions and decisions connect readers to Ava, Ezra, and Greer, even (or especially) when they’re far from perfect. She also creates vivid landscapes bursting with plants and animals. As a reader from Idaho, I enjoyed being transported to the beaches of Ecuador, but also appreciated the opportunity to reflect on the history and intricacies of the land I call home.

Meet the Fall 2026 TRR Interns

Lanessa Watkins: Hello! I’m Lanessa Watkins, and I’m a senior majoring in Publishing Arts with a minor in Creative writing. I am also the president of TRR. I am super excited to be building Issue 61, and I’m even more excited to lead some top-secret TRR projects we have been designing over the summer!

Landry Cash: My name is Landry Cash and I am the Vice President of TRR. I am going into my senior year, double majoring in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts here at Lewis-Clark State. I look forward to discovering and sharing literature from new voices for Issue 61!

Amy Hallman: My name is Amy Hallman and I am the Secretary of TRR. I am a senior at LC studying Publishing Arts. I am most excited about polishing our weekly newsletter and finding great pieces for Issue 61.

Kinsey Cook: My name is Kinsey Cook and I am on TRR‘s Newsletter and Media Team. I am a senior here at LCSC, majoring in Graphic Communications and minoring in Arts and Publishing Arts. I am most excited to be working on the graphic design of our Fall ’26 issue.

Mikoto Grimm: Hello! My name is Mikoto Grimm and I am a senior at Lewis-Clark State College. In spring of 2026 I graduated with an AAS in graphic communications, and now I am a year away from my bachelor’s in applied science for fall of 2027. This fall semester is my first time interning at TRR and I am excited to learn about the publishing process within TRR‘s next issue.

Jenna Creitz: My name is Jenna Creitz and I’m a Publishing Arts major. I look forward to reading pieces that ignite my passion for reading even more, and being able to share those pieces with others.

Gwen Mample: Hello, I’m Gwen Mample, and I am going into my senior year, double majoring in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts. I have a BS in History from LCSC and a minor in Political Science. I am mostly interested in getting better at writing my reviews and learning more about what it takes to potentially work at a publishing house.

Dayton Mitzkus: My name is Dayton Mitzkus, and I am a Junior at LCSC. I’m majoring in English: Publishing Arts, and what I’m most excited for in this class is just getting a chance to settle into the everyday work of editing.

Libby Bradbury: My name is Libby Bradbury and I am a junior here at LCSC. I am majoring in Publishing Arts and I am about to declare a minor in Psychology. I am excited to read new literature and share those amazing pieces with the readers of TRR.

Luke Masengale: My name is Luke Masengale and I’m a junior. I’m majoring in Creative Writing, and I’m the most excited to get better at editing and getting to read and talk about the literature in TRR.

Lorelai Renner: My name is Lorelai Renner and I am a Senior here at LCSC. I am majoring in English, and I am most excited to continue the opportunity of editing and sharing wonderful pieces with others.

From the Community: Libby Bradbury

Hi! I’m Libby Bradbury, and I’m a sophomore here at LC State. I’m majoring in Publishing Arts and minoring in Psychology. The end goal is to be a book editor. Reading has always been a favorite hobby of mine, and I have a knack for noticing mistakes in the books I read. Someday, I hope to write my own novel, which I try to work on during summer and winter breaks. I recently became an intern with the Talking River Review literary journal at LCSC. I enjoy it and I look forward to continuing my editing journey.

Apart from attending full-time classes and working part-time in the LC State Admissions Office, I am typically found at home. I have always been an introverted homebody, and after a long day of being out and about, I like to curl up on my couch and watch a movie with my brother. I also like trying out new recipes from thrifted cookbooks. When I need some quiet time, I prefer to settle in with my favorite book and light a new candle. On weekends, I like to visit my parents in Orofino, where I grew up.

The Last Book I Read: A Recommendation From Kimberly Tolson

The last book I read was essentially a modest holiday tray of baklava bites: tons of little snacks, all with flaky and delicious layers. Neatly packaged in a breezy 177-pages, Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill gives readers just enough to chew on with short chapters and even shorter paragraphs. It’s one of those “read in one sitting” books. Because of her engaging writing style—italics, all caps, parentheticals, numbered lists, hypothetical Q&A, unmarked dialogue, unique point of view—you keep reading, eager for another reference of a well-known philosopher, another deadpan joke, or another heartbreaking image, the details of which will stick to your fingers. Offill’s realistic dive into the inherent and unavoidable dilemmas found within a romantic partnership and within motherhood reverberates with me still. What else should we do with our time but speculate about our world and our place in it, one bite at a time?

The Last Book I Read: A Recommendation From Monique Ferrell

Still A Classic… Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Review by Monique Ferrell

I’m partial to stories that bookend themselves. The text begins with a Black man standing literally and metaphorically on the edge. Frustrated with life—with the treatment of Blackness in the world in which he resides—he leaps from the roof of Mercy Hospital, clad in blue silk wings. Broken-hearted, he takes with him a precious, generational secret—about Blackness and bodies that can soar away from life’s cruelties. This man, Robert Smith, dies just as Macon Dead Jr. (Milkman) is about to draw his first breath. Later, at the end of the book, Milkman will also take flight—no longer fearing the profound weight of his family, life under Jim Crow, or even death. In between these two moments, Morrison explores American history, ethnography, and Magical Realism—all wrapped up in a love story about how why Black people must learn to adore themselves… in order to achieve freedom.

I read this book every year. It’s that good, and that important to me as a Woman of Color and a writer. As an undergraduate, I remember feeling very adult once I took up the tome. It made me feel as if I understood something profound about the world and about myself. Like everything Morrison has written, it simply settled in my bones and upon my skin. It’s a work that simply…matters.