The Pierre Laclede Honors College at UMSL publishes an edition of Bellerive annually. This year is the 25th edition. Inside these publications is a plethora of work ranging from light-hearted to emotional to educational pieces. Work can be submitted from January 1st up to October 1st for review.
Every submitter is allowed five poems, five original art pieces, two prose, two music submissions (compositions or lyrics,) and one academic essay to be considered for that year’s edition. All of the pieces submitted must be works that have not been previously published somewhere else. Each submission is reviewed anonymously and students’ names are hidden until the work is published.
“Bellerive is a publication produced by the Honors College students. It features art, photography, music, poetry, prose and essays from students across campus, but also we accept from alumni, faculty, and staff as well. We produce an issue every single year. We’re going on our 25th year,” said Honors professor and Bellerive advisor Audri Adams.
While this is a student-made publication, the pieces shared inside it may not always be student works. Bellerive is unique in that alumni and faculty are also allowed to submit any of their work. However, they are limited to only one piece of creation in each respective category. Alumni such as Kate Votaw, Audri Adams, Jason Vasser, Cullen Landolt, etc. Like other UMSL campus classes and publications, Bellerive is both a class and a publication. The respective class is only offered to students in the Fall semester of each year and switches between a 2000 and 3000-level seminar. Furthermore, Bellerive is this ever-evolving publication that is reaching out to get the recognition that it deserves.
“This past year, we won the NCHC, National Collegiate Honors Council, award, and they give publications awards every year. We won second place for the print division last year, which was, I believe, one of the first times we’ve actually entered in a national competition. So it’s something that I will definitely be sending students back to in the future,” Adams mentioned.
Gaining national recognition for any piece of work is a major accomplishment. While last year was, presumably, the first year Bellerive was submitted to any award nomination, it will not be the last. The national acclaim is new, but Bellerive maintains a close relationship with its grassroots beginnings. While the key attribute is that it’s produced by students, it takes excellent leadership from talented faculty to bring it all together.
“Nancy Gleason, former Dean of the Honors College and creator of Bellerive, started the course, and then Gerianne Friedline, former professor, took over and taught it up until she retired, and I took over the seminar at that point. This is my fourth semester and year teaching it. I also previously took the class a couple of times as a student whenever I was an honors student,” Adams shared.
“It, Bellerive, was definitely my favorite class that I took as a student and something that I was very glad that I was able to take a second time, too. You can actually take it up to three different times and still have it count towards your degree. There’s different submissions, different students and it creates something totally unique to you. It also is really special to have so many different majors accounted for, and it really creates a stronger publication at the end of it. Because you have so many different ideas and interests, and people that are judging those works and making sure that it’s going to appeal to a wider audience,” Adams said.
Do you have any work that you are proud of? Do you know amazing writers? Do you think this class would be the perfect fit for you? If that is the case, UMSL has the perfect opportunities for you with Bellerive and The Current. The Current is the perfect training ground to hone your skills for honors and graduate-level work, such as Bellerive.
