LEWISTON – The recently published Franco-American anthology “Canuck and Other Stories” will be the focus of a free public program at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, at the public library.

The book’s editor, Rhea Côté Robbins, and translators Sylvie Charron, Jeannine Bacon Roy and Madeleine Roy will discuss and present selected readings from the three works included in the book. They are “Canuck,” by Camille Lessard Bissonnette (1883-1970); “La Jeune Franco-Américaine (The Young Franco-American),” by Alberte Gastonguay (1906-1978); and “Françaises d’Amérique (Frenchwomen of North America),” by Corinne Rocheleau Rouleau (1881-1963).

Herself a Maine author, Robbins came across these texts a few years ago while doing research in preparation for teaching a course titled “Franco-American Women’s Experiences.”

In reading them, she realized that they provided inspiring perspectives on the lives of North American French women of past eras and recognized them as seminal works of fiction forming a rare body of literature of the Franco-Americans who immigrated/emigrated to the United States.

These writings were all penned in French, however, and Robbins wanted them to also be accessible to people who cannot read French, especially younger generation Franco-Americans.

“As Franco-Americans, we have a rich and long literary tradition,” said Robbins, pointing to these particular writings as part of that tradition.

So Robbins secured translators with a knowledge of and sensitivity to the nuances of North American French and compiled this anthology, which made its way into bookstores and libraries earlier this year.

The first of the book’s offerings, “Canuck,” reflects the immigration experience from a young woman’s point of view. “La Jeune Franco-Américaine,” set in Lewiston, was first published by the Lewiston French language newspaper press Le Messager in 1933 and is described by Robbins as a romance demonstrating “how to fall in love Franco-American style.”

“Françaises d’Amérique” is a one-act play about little-known heroines who helped settle Quebec, or – as it was called at the time – New France.

As its author states in the preface: “We have often discussed the major feats and accomplishments of the [male] French colonists, but we have left their ‘better halves’ in semi-darkness. I believe that it is time to introduce these French women pioneers.”

Copies of the anthology will be available for purchase at the May 22 event to be held in Callahan Hall of the library, at 200 Lisbon St. For more information, call 784-0135, extension 210.