What connotations do you have with the phrase Southern Belle? Whatever they are, Belle Journal is sure to change it.
Belle Journal is a literary novel for the “Modern Southern Belle” that allows southern women to express their raw form through visual art, poetry and story.
The journal’s editor and founder Janey Hogan, an LSU law graduate and current criminal law attorney from Hammond, wanted to do something beyond her career — something that spoke to her soul and made an artistic difference in the world.
“If you Google search Southern Belle you get these unrealistic representations of what it means to be a southern woman,” Hogan said.
The deep love for women and writing that Hogan and her counterpart, Amelia Tritico, have is what established the true idea of Belle Journal in 2012. The idea was to represent every shape, color and form of a southern women, and to show that they are more than their stereotype — they are beautiful, sincere and all wonderfully southern, Hogan said.
“There’s something about the women down here,” Hogan said. “They have this amazing attitude — a strength and a wildness. They are women who know how to really eat, but can make it look elegant.”
Volume One of the journal was released in 2013, with release parties occurring in various parts of Louisiana. Volume Two, which is systematically like volume one, was published earlier this year.
“Volume One is beautiful, but it’s our baby,” said Hogan. “Volume Two is when we really knew what we wanted and how to make it work together.”
A personal favorite of Hogan’s from the second volume is, “Name. Sex. Age.” by Tiffany Privat. It’s a poem describing the meaning and representation of a woman’s age in the South.
Based on the title, one would assume submissions written only by women are accepted. However, Belle Journal does allow men to submit under a female pseudonym.
“Literary journals did not publish women in the past unless under a male pseudonym,” Hogan said.
The idea gives Belle Journal a rich, feministic feel. If men want to expose their identities, they can do so in the bio section of the novel, but many didn’t want to after developing their female character, Hogan said.
Submissions to Volume Three of Belle Journal are currently being accepted at bellejournal.com, and Hogan encourages everyone to submit anything that means something to them and represents the idea of being a southern woman.
“There’s about six or seven of us, and we all sit on this porch drinking coffee and reading through all the submissions,” Hogan said.
How southern of them.
