Leslie Choquette is professor of history and director of the French Institute at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is the author of Frenchmen into Peasants: Modernity and Tradition in the Peopling of French Canada (Harvard University Press, 1997), awarded the Alfred Heggoy Book Prize of the French Colonial Historical Society. Professor Choquette also writes about the francophone presence in North America from the fall of New France to the present day.
Ron Currie is a novelist and screenwriter. A native Mainer, his work has been translated into 15 languages, and has won the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Alex Award from the American Library Association, and the Pushcart Prize. As a screenwriter he's worked, most recently, on the Apple TV+ series EXTRAPOLATIONS, scheduled for release in 2022. His short fiction, nonfiction, essays and criticism have been published in the New York Times, Salon, The Believer, The Chicago Tribune, and many other venues.
Annick de Bellefeuille is the author of The Lourdes of New England, a novel set in Woonsocket, RI in 1928 about the struggles of the French Canadian community. She is currently at work on a prequel to Lourdes about a French Canadian Chaplain during WW 1. A native of Ottawa, she was a documentary filmmaker at The National Film Board of Canada in Montréal. A powerful wanderlust drew her to New York City where she worked as a journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Radio Canada. She now lives in Hudson, New York. (AnnickdeBellefeuille.com)
Christine Jones is from Cape Cod, MA and is author of the full-length poetry book, Girl Without a Shirt (Finishing Line Press, 2020) and co-editor of the anthology, Voices Amidst the Virus: Poets Respond to the Pandemic (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2020). She is also founder/editor-in-chief of Poems2go and an associate editor of Lily Poetry Review. Her mom, Rachel Lise Cote, was born in Asbestos, Canada.
Chase Julien is an emerging visual artist and painter born and raised in Acadiana. Even from an early age, he recognized how unique and special the area’s culture and heritage is, and set out to honor its traditions and keep them alive. He made it a point to focus on the French language as a student, and many of the titles of his works are in French. By drawing on both the mythos of his birthplace and the influence of French surrealists, his work looks to bridge the gap between European French culture and that of Acadiana, reflecting influences from surrealism, expressionism, and fantasy. Through figurative painting and portraiture, he seeks to eloquently balance representation of heritage and his people; myth and personal vision; grace and mystique.
James LaForest is a native of rural northern Michigan and a graduate in Classics from the University of Michigan, as well as a librarian by training. He is the creator of blogs The Red Cedar: Essays and New Perspectives on French-Canadian and Métis Culture and Voyageur Heritage: A Community Journal. He has also contributed to several publications, including The Michigan Historical Review, Choice Reviews, Le Forum, and others. He lives in Chicago.
Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection, Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection,The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also the author of Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition, The Book of Women. She is the co-author of the celebrated text The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry.
Emilie-Noelle Provost is a freelance writer and the author of the middle grade novel The Blue Bottle (North Country Press, 2018). An avid hiker, she is a member of New Hampshire's 4,000-Footer Club and, along with her husband, has climbed mountains across New England as well as in Canada and Norway. Her second novel, The River Is Everywhere, the coming of age story of a Franco American teenager, will be published in February 2023 by Vine Leaves Press. Emilie is a longtime resident of Lowell, Massachusetts. See what she's up to at emilienoelleprovost.com.
Megan St. Marie is the president of Modern Memoirs, Inc., a private publishing company based in Amherst, Massachusetts that specializes in memoirs and family histories. A graduate of Smith College and Simmons University, she is a seventh-generation Vermonter of Franco-American and Irish descent. The mother of seven children in a multiracial, foster-adoptive, queer, blended family, Megan is also a children’s book author, reviewer, and scholar publishing under the name Megan Dowd Lambert. Learn more about Megan’s business at www.modernmemoirs.com and about her career in children’s literature at www.megandowdlambert.com.
Leah Souffrant is the author of Plain Burned Things: A Poetics of the Unsayable (Collection Clinamen, PULG Liège, 2017). Souffrant is a poet, critic, and creator committed to interdisciplinary practice, and she is Clinical Associate Professor of writing at New York University.
Jeri Theriault’s collections include Radost, my red and the award-winning In the Museum of Surrender. She is the editor of Wait: Poems from the Pandemic. Her poems and reviews have appeared in journals such as: The American Journal of Poetry, The Rumpus, The Texas Review, Rhino and The Collagist. A 2019 Maine Literary Award winner, Jeri lives in South Portland, ME. www.jeritheriault.com
Though Erin Trahan grew up in Michigan and now lives in Massachusetts, she traces her ancestry through Quebec and has visited often to research and co-author several Frommer’s travel guides to the region. For nearly two decades she has written about and reported on independent film for outlets such as The Boston Globe and WBUR (Boston’s NPR news station), where she is a regular contributor. She also teaches at Emerson College, writes poetry, personal essays, and has a documentary in the works.
Bill Tremblay is a poet and novelist. His nine books of poetry include Crying in the Cheap Seats, Duhamel, Shooting Script, and Walks Along the Ditch. His forthcoming book, entitled The Luminous Race Track, will be published this fall by Lynx House Press.. His work has been featured in many anthologies including Pushcart Prize, Best American Poetry, New Poets of the American West, and The Jazz Poetry Anthology. Bill was instrumental in establishing the MFA program at Colorado State University as well as Colorado Review.
David Vermette is the author of the book A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans (Montreal: Baraka Books, 2018). He is a researcher, blogger, and speaker on the subject of New England's Franco-Americans. He also holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He was born and raised in Massachusetts.