The result of my editing Le F.A.R.O.G. Forum and Le FORUM for ten years has given me deeper insight into my own culture. The more deeper treasure has been the recognition of my Franco-American woman's life. There is a way of voicing the culture in general; there is also voicing which happens for women separate from the general view. The picture of the general voice is one which describes the way life is lived by a group of people. What the voicing of the Franco-American woman presents is a view which enhances the larger picture. A detailed cut-away of the culture's finest attributes.

 For the Franco-Americans, we have long been present on the North American continent. First in Québec, and then in the U.S. Migration as a way of life, moving between the border. In the story of how the South, U.S., met the North, Québécois, the story is one of whole families migrating to the Northeast. Along with that migration, came the women and children with the men.

 During those years of editing, I had the opportunity to write and express my culture and to foster the writings of many people in the Franco-American culture. My final editor's note expresses my deep gratitude for the things which I have learned from the people of my culture.
 
 

Editor's Note:

 There are times when the pages of the book we are reading, are turned. In my life two of my children have left home to go live on their own and our youngest is very independent these days, being sixteen and mobile with a car of his own. This tells me my life is moving on.

This Le FORUM marks ten years of editing for me. You have been a very good readership. Very wise and very giving. I thank you for that. I have learned many things under your tutelage. Mostly, I have learned myself and to love my culture and my people. These are the things you learn when the lessons have been good. You learn yourself. My sojourn in the land of university was formed by three people and their words. One said, "Why else would you come to college, but to learn about life?" Another told me that to come to a university we train our sensibilities. The other, and the last, told me to be true to myself, no matter what.

This is the final Le FORUM for the year. In it, as usual there are the words which leave you wondering at the loveliness of people in story community. There are moments of epiphany and new-found friendship. Reconnections. Renewal of commitments. And remembering. New writers. New words. New ways. All of the people in this volume who have contributed of their time and their writing talents bring you a piece of themselves which they give to you. In return, you are a gift to them. This is the way of being Franco-American that I know. These are the people I know. This is the way of life which I will remember best.

Rhea Côté Robbins
Editor-in-Chief
Le FORUM, Spring 1996

Rhea Côté Robbins is the author of Wednesday's Child, the 1997 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Chapbook Award winner. She co-edited and designed I am Franco-American and Proud of It: Franco-American Women's Anthology. She is a contributor to Old Women's Wisdom, a multi-cultural anthology of women over eighty years old living in Aroostook County. Rhea served as editor for ten years of Le FORUM, a bilingual, socio-cultural journal. In addition, she has authored two bibliographies one for WBDC and the Leadership Development Project; the other is entitled Franco-American Health-Related Bibliography.

 In 1995 she was selected for the Steve Grady Endowment Fund for Creative Writing, First Prize, Poetry. Her essays, poetry, book reviews, and recipes have appeared in the following publications: Les Voix/Voices, Rafale, Stolen Island Review, Pucker Brush Review, ECHOES, Portland Magazine, WBDC Developments, Feminist Times, Le FORUM, Le F.A.R.O.G. Forum, Portland Sunday Telegram, Bangor Daily News, Brewer Register, Foxtail, Young Poets of America, Eating Between the Lines: A Maine Writer's Cookbook, Nos Histoires de l'Ile: Livre de cuisine, RSVP Recipes: Aroostook County, and L'Ouest Français et la Francophonie Nord-Américaine.

 Currently she edits several web pages, and an electronic magazine for Franco-American women, moé pi toé, at-- http://www.fawi.net/Links.html#contemporary.

 She is working on a book of literary criticism on Grace Metalious, the author of Peyton Place who was a Franco-American woman writer. Forthcoming publication of her work will appear in River Revue/Review Rivière and Reflections on Maine.

A Franco-American woman's literary tradition exists, and a separate feminist criticism is needed to look at this literature. I need to look at the ways that Franco-American women's literature is unique unto itself. In order to do this, I will employ variant concepts of realism and sentimentalism to discuss Franco-American women's literature but more importantly, I will explore other components of criticism that can be incorporated to come to a deeper understanding of these ethnic women writers.

 As Raymond LePage states in a paper presented at MLA, 1982, entitled, "Realism and Feminism: Franco-American Women Writers of New England":
 
 

"Unfortunately, most literary studies...fail to mention the literary output of the largest ethnic group living in New England.... Thus, a central piece in the region's literary mosaic is nearly always omitted".

La femme franco-américaine a toujours vécu dans l'ombre: dans l'ombre du clocher, dans l'ombre de la salle de classe, dans l'ombre de la salle de travail à l'usine, dans l'ombre du curé, dans l'ombre de son mari. Le moment était arrivé, nous semble-t-il, de l'en sortir pour étaler au grand jour son apport indispensable à la vie et à la survie de la Franco-Américainie.