History of Nuances
The first edition of Nuances
came out in 1983. Sister Rita Yeasted, Ph.D. came to La Roche
College in 1980 and
was surprised that there was no place for students to publish their
work. Sister Rita and the students managed to get a little
money from the Academic Vice-President, Dr. Mary Stuart. Since La
Roche didn’t have computers then, Colleen White typed the first
issue and it was printed on campus. Denise Berry, who was a graphic
design major, designed the cover, a circular wave swirl, and that
stayed the cover design to “brand” the magazine each year. For
the next few years into the late 1980s Jacqueline Schlesinger did most
of the typing. Schlesinger and Sister Rita both contributed to
laying out the magazine.
At the time, Schlesinger was using her home personal computer to
begin typing up Nuances long before La Roche had computers
available to faculty and students. Sister Rita and Schlesinger would put the magazine together. La Roche would then print the
final copy of the magazine and make it available to the
students.
The next faculty sponsor of Nuances was Dr. Dorothy
Saladiak, who retired right before Dr. Maher began teaching at La
Roche.
In 1991,
Alpha Gamma Phi, the college's chapter of the English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta, took over
the editorial process with Dr. Michelle Maher as the faculty moderator.
Nuances was, and continues
to be, very much a student-run organization.
One hundred copies of Nuances were published each summer in the form of a booklet.
Professor Tom Bates from the department of Graphic Design
helped with the layout and design of the journal. Free copies of
Nuances were distributed
in August at the beginning of the school year, set out in
stacks at various places around campus.
Then, as now, published works were exclusively from members of
the La Roche College community, and students served as editors and
proofreaders.
In
2002, Nuances
began publishing online in order to eliminate the rising costs of printing
and to reach a wider audience. Nuances was able to go online through the help of Dr. Irene Joos and
Dr. Lynn Archer, both of whom are faculty members in the Information
Systems Technology Department.
Nuances continues
to solicit poetry and fiction from members of La Roche College,
including students, faculty, and staff.
The student editorial board meets each
spring to decide which work will be published, and a new issue comes
out every summer. Our
purpose has always been to provide a vehicle, particularly for La
Roche College students, to publish their writing, and to give them a
chance to share their work with a wider audience than might be found
in a classroom. It also
provides an opportunity for students who enjoy reading and writing
to hone their editorial skills. In essence,
Nuances serves as an
outlet for members of the La Roche College community to publish
original, quality poetry and fiction.