DEAR READER,
Everything has a way of doubling back on itself. A sentence echoes an earlier line, a photograph captures a moment that feels both immediate and eternal, an ending feels like a beginning. This year, the Susquehanna University literary community voted for Cycles as this edition’s theme, and as we sifted through submissions, we saw how deeply this concept resonated with contributors. From the ebb and flow of memory to the spirals of loss and renewal, the array of works in this issue remind us that to move forward, we must often revisit where we rooted from. Growth is rarely linear: sometimes we circle back to something we thought we left behind, only to see it more clearly the second time around.
This past year, the RiverCraft editorial team has witnessed cycles of its own. As editors come and go, as the campus’ creative community evolves, and as the literary landscape shifts, we remain bound by a shared love of storytelling. The selections in this issue reflect that continuity, with voices and the showcasing of different walks of life all finding meaning in repetition, return, and reinvention.
Being still on the continuum of publishing the work of undergraduate students keeps literature breathing, accessible, and infused with words of worlds we otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to enter. RiverCraft is honored to be engaging with such a diverse community of writers and magazines, and we look forward to evolving with the student body, creating and recreating the ways we physically and emblematically represent ourselves.
As you engage with these pieces, we hope they prompt you to consider your own cycles: the ones you break, the ones you repeat, and the ones you’re still trying to understand. We invite you to notice the patterns across the pages: not as something fixed, but as something always in motion.