Coming Home: Jordan LaHaye Fontenot on Returning to LSU as the 2026 Honors Convocation Speaker

Ogden Honors College alumna and bestselling author Jordan LaHaye Fontenot returns to LSU as the keynote speaker for the 2026 Honors Convocation on Monday, August 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Theater. Here's what she had to say about her return to campus.

For Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, the stage at the LSU Student Union Theater isn't an unfamiliar one.

LaHaye Fontenot was a new freshman at LSU in August of 2014, sitting in the audience at Honors Convocation as journalist David Finkel spoke about Thank You For Your Service, that year’s shared read.

"I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, had just started at LSU, and was so interested in writing something—though I had no idea what yet,” Fontenot said.

This August, she'll walk onto that same stage as a published, bestselling author.

Last April, LaHaye Fontenot released Home of the Happy: A Murder on the Cajun Prairie, the Ogden Honors College's 2026 Shared Read. A national bestseller, the memoir traces LaHaye Fontenot's reinvestigation of the 1983 kidnapping and murder of her great-grandfather, Aubrey LaHaye, in Evangeline Parish. The book moves between family history, investigative journalism, and a vivid portrait of small-town Louisiana; a setting, LaHaye Fontenot has said, that functions as a character in its own right.

“What a remarkable full-circle moment it is to now be invited to stand on that stage with my own book and perhaps help some student realize that your dreams don't have to be theoretical,” she said. “This can really happen, if you put the work in!"

It's a book that, in a way, was born at LSU.

Where the Book Began

Long before Home of the Happy made it onto shelves, it was an Honors Capstone proposal that was initially envisioned as a long-form essay.

LaHaye Fontenot brought that idea to LSU associate professor of English Joshua Wheeler, who encouraged her to think bigger. With his mentorship, she developed a full book proposal that became her Honors capstone, and, eight years later, her debut book.

For LaHaye Fontenot, the selection of Home of the Happy as this year’s shared read closes a loop that started in that classroom.

It's of course extra special because the Honors College, and its [capstone] program, is in large part why this book exists.

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, Author of Home of the Happy

"That opportunity to not only receive credit hours and dedicated time to launching this project, but also the mentorship of professors and authors on faculty who had done this before, was invaluable," she said.

What Students Can Take Away

This summer, every student in the Ogden Honors College is reading Home of the Happy before they set foot on campus, and the book will serve as a core text for over 20 sections of HNRS 2000 across the 2026–27 academic year. When asked what she hopes those students carry with them after reading the book, LaHaye Fontenot answered with three different kinds of students in mind.

"For students from Louisiana, I hope that they recognize something from their home and their culture in the book—and see how compelling storytelling can be here," she said.

"For students coming here from elsewhere, I hope that they find themselves curious about the place they've landed, and the people who populate it, especially when it comes to the rural small towns around places like Baton Rouge."

"For students hoping to write in some capacity, I hope that they can see some of my work on the page and perhaps imagine how their own backgrounds and hometowns and legacies and inner conflicts might be worthy of being shared."

She was that last kind of student once herself, sitting in a classroom, knowing she wanted to write something but not yet sure what.

The Long Haul

Home of the Happy didn't materialize in a four-year stretch at LSU. It took eight years, much of it after LaHaye Fontenot had graduated and moved into the working world: first as a freelancer, then, six months out of school, as a staff editor at Country Roads Magazine, where she has served as managing editor since 2018.

In those early days, she hadn't anticipated just how long the project would take, or how much life would happen in the middle of it. It was a long road, but LaHaye Fontenot says it was a road worth staying on.

"Something I wish someone had told me in those early days is that, especially in the turmoil of figuring out one's path after college, life will get in the way of the project,” she said. You'll never get so much dedicated time to work on something like this as you will while you are at LSU. You'll start working, or grad school, and be mentally exhausted. You'll fall in love and get your heart broken and it won't feel important. Terrible things will happen in the world, and you'll wonder why your story should matter at all. And it will sit in a desk, or a file on your computer, for months, sometimes years, sometimes just because you don't feel like doing the work anymore."

"You don't need to hold guilt for that,” she added. “The breaks I took and the growth that happened in between when I started and when I finished shaped the story in important ways."

"But you do have to keep going back! And it was my dad who pushed me at one point, who told me: 'You do have to finish this.' And he was right.”

“Trust me,” she said, “it will be worth it."

About Honors Convocation

Each year, the Ogden Honors College kicks off its academic year with Honors Convocation. The event is centered around a shared read, chosen by a committee consisting of the college's alumni, faculty, and staff.

The committee is split into groups which, over winter break, read one of the various books under consideration. At the start of the spring semester, the committee reconvenes and votes on the following academic year's selection.

Honors Convocation will take place Monday, August 31, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Theater. Jordan LaHaye Fontenot will deliver the keynote address. A book signing will follow.

The entire Ogden Honors community is invited to participate in this shared learning experience, including current students, faculty, and staff.

Until then, there's a book to read. For any Honors student beginning to create a capstone project of your own: keep going back.