LEWISTON — The University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American Collection will be hosting two book events in the upcoming weeks.

Tuesday, Nov. 17: Co-authors James Myall and Mary Rice-DeFosse will discuss “The Franco-Americans of Lewiston-Auburn.”

Published this past year, the book draws heavily from materials in the Franco-American Collection, located at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College. In this comprehensive, readable history, the authors explore a number of social and cultural themes, from the arts and literature to religion, language, discrimination, and assimilation. The discussion will be accompanied by some of the many historic images included in the book. Although the book focuses on the Twin Cities of Lewiston and Auburn, the history is relevant to Franco-Americans across the state, and will also be of interest to anyone who enjoys Maine history.

The two authors are well-known in the Lewiston community.

Currently Director of Freeport Historical Society, James Myall previously served as the coordinator of the Franco-American Collection.

Mary Rice-Defosse is a professor of French and Francophone Studies at Bates College, and has worked with students collecting oral histories as part of the Franco-American Oral History Project.

Tuesday, Dec. 8: The second book event will be a staged reading of a portion of the play, “Jeanne et Osithée: Parallèles Croisées.”

Depicting an imaginary encounter between two French-speaking women, one from France and the other from Maine, this program requires some knowledge of French, but fluency is not required.

The authors, Jean-Claude Redonnet and Grégoire Chabot, will be present. Redonnet is a university professor specializing in Francophonie topics in North America, and was head of the French school of Middlebury College from 1996 to 2003.

Originally from Waterville, Chabot is the founder and director of the theater group “Du Monde d’à côté” and is the author of many plays, essays and scripts for the radio and the television.

Both programs are free to attend, although donations are welcome. Light refreshments will be served, and signed copies of the books will be available for sale.

Both will take place at 4 p.m. in Room 170 of USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College at 51 Westminster St.

For more information call Janet Roberts at 207-753-6545, email [email protected] or visit the Collection’s website www.usm.maine.edu/franco.