Cover art by Ellen Ogden
From under the lazy live oaks and the minds of two ambitious Southern women comes the 140-page second volume of Belle Journal, a literary journal tasked with redefining the southern belle by way of poetry, prose, and visual art.
“It took one Google search to realize the negative connotations and imagery associated with the word [belle],” mused Belle Journal founder and editor, Janey Hogan. “I find this amazing attitude in women down here; a strength and a wildness. The ability to drink bourbon until dawn, but also to use a fork and knife and to send thank you cards.”
Hogan and fellow Southerner Amelia Tritico hatched the idea back in 2012, while Hogan was in law school. Volume One was released in 2013, with release parties from Louisiana to Tennessee. Volume Two is thematically and stylistically similar to Volume One, with unique takes on the Southern experience rife in both.
“I find this amazing attitude in women down here; a strength and a wildness. The ability to drink bourbon until dawn, but also to use a fork and knife and to send thank you cards.”
“There is such a strong feminine theme, which I expected, but the depth of it, and how it ranges from traumatic to absurd, always amazes me,” said Hogan.
Her personal favorite from Volume One, for example—titled “Dear Doctor,” by Emily Thibodeaux—involves a girl traipsing around Acadiana compiling words for the first American-Cajun English dictionary. She ultimately finds the Cajun language to be dying, and explains how that impacts her.
Hogan is also taken with a poem from Volume Two, “Name. Sex. Age.” by Tiffany Privat, which dances around the concept of a woman’s age in a particularly Southern way.
As the name might imply, Belle Journal only accepts submissions from women, but men may also submit under a female pseudonym. And there’s poetic reason.
“I love the Bronte sisters and I read an article about how they originally published their work in journals under male pseudonyms, because they had to,” said Hogan. “Literary journals in the past did not publish women. So, this flips the script.”
The journal allows men to expose their male identities in the bio section, but Hogan found that most didn’t want to. “They get really into their alter egos,” she says.
Both volumes are available for purchase ($10) at bellejournal.com.
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