Bakersfield College professor Brad Stiles launched the Roughneck Review on April 24 at the Norman Levan Center.

Students and staff gathered to hear an introduction by Stiles, as he discussed his present and future goals for the new online journal.

It was agreed that Roughneck Review would be the name of the website by a student’s suggestion.

“The roughnecks are that class of worker that does the actual work,” said Stiles. “The reason I wanted ‘Roughneck’ in the title was because BC is really Bakersfield’s school.”

In its current form, the website features work solely created by BC students and range from creative works (poems, plays, stories and photos) to essay writing. Artwork, music pieces and other forms of media may also be eligible for online publication.

“We’ve gotten a lot of responses when I approached them about submitting work,” said Keri Wolf, BC English professor and editor of the Roughneck Review.

“Three of my students are currently in the issue.”

There have been 22 contributing writers and 23 projects submitted, including a partner assignment.

“So far we have essays,” said Wolf. “Some are personal narratives, there’s argumentative, and informational as well.”

Stiles said that the Roughneck Review would be released twice a year in April and October.

“We’re going to try to get the word out to the community and to the world that [BC] has very talented students,” said Stiles.

A few students with published work attended the launch at the Norman Levan Center and were given a formal introduction by their professor and went on to read their essays.

BC student Amy Daley presented her essay on the history of wine after an introduction by history professor Paul Beckwith.

Students Mary Sickler, Daniel Adriano and Lakeisha Nellums followed in suit by reading their essays dealing with image, racism and related subjects.

Students can submit work for the next issue through their professor or on their own directly to Stiles.

If that is the case, student’s work will be reviewed by a group of editor’s who will then decide if it will go to post.

As for the future, students can expect to see a wider variety of media available on the website for viewing.

“I wanted to make this a gift not only to the students, but also to the community,” said Stiles.