About

“…riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth’s castle and Environs.”

James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

James Joyce (1882-1941) by Berenice Abbott, c. 1928.

What is riverrun?

Begun in 1971 by Dr. C. Kenneth Pellow, riverrun has been an avenue through which UCCS artists and writers have been able to express their voices. The journal is designed in the  riverrun Literary and Arts Journal course (ENGL3170) and is published at the end of each spring semester. UCCS students are welcome to enroll in the course and participate in the editing and publication of the journal. Any UCCS student may submit original, creative work to the publication. riverrun is proud to have published works by writers and artists who have gone on to critical acclaim, including: Yusef Komunyakaa, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1994; Marc Weber, an award winning poet; and Sally Mankus, a photographer, sculptor, and mixed-media artist whose works continue to be exhibited throughout the country.

Why “riverrun” ?

Dr. Pellow and his first group of students working on the campus arts journal decided to name the journal riverrun in honor of the first word in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The book’s innovative style of reinventing the English language, as in the word riverrun, represents the paradoxical necessities to merge differences and to keep changing. But the book is also written cyclically, with the very last line feeding back into the book’s opening word. This fluid, cyclical nature implies that both convergence and divergence from the norm are vital for survival. Thus, the word “riverrun” must never be capitalized, as it is not capitalized in Finnegans Wake.

How to Get Involved

SUBMIT your original work for publication by February 12th, 2022. We publish works of:

  • Visual Art
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Short Performance

REGISTER for the riverrun Literary and Arts Journal course (ENGL3170) to participate in the selection of submissions and the design, editing, and publication of the journal. English majors and non-English majors are encouraged to enroll; all are welcome!