Our Story

RiverCraft is an undergraduate literary magazine founded on the mission of celebrating and amplifying the diverse artistic excellence of Susquehanna University students. First established as the literary magazine Focus in 1964, RiverCraft has since evolved to become a student-run magazine that publishes an annual collection of exceptional student work in literary fiction, poetry, photography, and visual art.  The magazine simultaneously serves as an opportunity for undergraduate editors at Susquehanna University to exercise their emerging expertise in editorial and design management.

Despite its many stages, RiverCraft has developed evolving traditions. In 1995, the editors compiled a list of favorite lines from the published pieces, using one as the title of the issue and incorporating the others into a design on the back cover. The same year, a blank piece of paper was inserted between the front cover and the first page of the magazine as a symbolic reminder of the intimidating blank page that faces all writers and artists. 

It was originally created in 1964 by Mrs. Marjorie McCune, Mr. Jared Curtis, and Dr. Charles Rahter under the title Focus. Dr. Gary Fincke, himself an accomplished writer, became the magazine’s advisor in 1982, and after he founded the Writer’s Institute in 1993, the magazine was renamed The Susquehanna Review. But by 2003, the title of Susquehanna Review had evolved into the University’s national undergraduate journal. Finally, the name RiverCraft emerged to represent our annual celebration of campus literature. Now that we’re adapting once more to meet the digital age, we hope that the work of our students may reach a wider audience and be more accessible to those off-campus as well as on it.

Although we do not publish writers outside Susquehanna University, we encourage everyone to read RiverCraft in support of the budding authors and artists we foster. Thank you for visiting our website.