Nicholls recently announced it was proud to release its 4th installment of its Annual Issue of Literary Journal Chênière.  Chênière began as an idea in the summer of 2014, with Nicholls Language and Literature faculty Scott Banville wanting an online journal in the Humanities at the university. Shana Walton became the first faculty advisor of the journal thereafter. Afterwards, Professors Patrick Perkins and Michael Martin took over as faculty advisors for the journal. Creative Writing student Anna Babin served as the journal’s first student editor.  The journal is based out of Nicholls State University, located in the Bayou Region of Thibodaux, Louisiana.

The name is derived from a local, coastal environmental feature. The journal is in its third issue and continues to evolve. The goal of Chênière is to become the top undergraduate Humanities journal in the Gulf Coast Region.  Literary journals give students and faculty alike the opportunity to get their work published on a smaller scale while also providing experience and exposure of the writing, editing, selection, publishing and printing process to students in the field.

The name Chênière was a conscious title chosen for several reasons:  not only for its local connections but also for the way it works as a metaphor for knowledge. Like Chênières, knowledge is temporary, built up over time in a gradual way, provides firm ground for putting down roots, for settling down and creating more knowledge and culture and then is either slowly replaced by a new Chênière via the process of silt and erosion or suddenly through a hurricane-like event.

In its fourth installment, Chênière is produced by three partnering departments: the Department of English, the Department of Modern Languages, and the Department of Cultural Studies.  Students explored various topics including William Faulkner and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  As a side note, the Department of English, Modern Languages, & Cultural Studies’ online degree was once again listed in Best Online Bachelor’s Degrees in English Programs, ranking in the top 25 nationally.  Part of that ranking was due to the phenomenal Literary Journal offering and its fourth installment proves to be no exception to its history of excellence.

Faculty advisor Dr. Michael Martin, assistant professor of English stated, “This issue is the culmination of a year of hard work, from procuring submissions to moving through the editing process.  The five articles are some of the highest quality essays yet published in Chênière.”

The issue features five articles from multiple fields of study, including art history, film and early American literary studies. Student authors are: Tabitha Mire (BA ‘19) from Lockport; Krista Butts, teaching certification graduate student from Houma; Caitlin Jones, a senior English major from Raceland; Lillian LeCompte, a junior English major from Houma; and Hannah Reynolds, a senior English major from Troy, North Carolina.

Faculty editors from the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Cultural Studies are Dr. Banville, Dr. Alex Fabrizio, Dr. Abigail Scherer and Dr. Victoria Scholz. To submit an essay, contact nsuchenieresubmit@gmail.com.

You can view the issue here: https://www.nicholls.edu/cheniere/articles/volume-4/.

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