About the Louisiana Anthology
Bienvenue à l’Anthologie Louisianaise!
The Louisiana Anthology is a collaborative project among the editors (Bruce R. Magee and Stephen Payne), Louisiana writers, publishers, groups of Bruce’s English students, and the general public. One goal of the project is pedagogical; we generally follow the Core Practices of the Firefox Magazine, a long-term project that allows students to collaborate with teachers and with people from the community. Our students not only help preserve the literary heritage of Louisiana; they also learn about that heritage while working in teams on projects they choose, with Bruce as the facilitator. The project allows the students to reach a global audience far beyond the classroom. Their names are at the end of the works they edited.
The Anthology is an online collection of texts about Louisiana. Our goal is to include the widest possible collection of works — fiction, poetry, drama, myths, folk-tales, exploration narratives, travelogues, letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, speeches, histories, recipes, lyrics, newspaper articles, blog posts, etc. The common denominator among these very diverse genres is that they all involve Louisiana.
The works we include range from the earliest roots to contemporary works. We try to reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of Louisiana by posting works from all ethnic groups in the original language. When possible, we include entire works when they are in public domain or when we get the permission of the copyright holders. For a work still under copyright, our goal is to post enough to interest readers in buying the whole publication.
We began the Anthology in the spring of 2012 with the posting of “Posson Jone’” by George Washington Cable. We had become concerned that too little was being done to collect and spread the literature of Louisiana. Few anthologies of Louisiana literature have been published, and none of those was comprehensive. By making this material available on a web site, we are able to make this material available quickly and economically. While our works focus on Louisiana, our audience is all across America and all around the world. To make our material as widely available as possible, we have made the site responsive to different devices. It is thus user friendly regardless of whether to reader is using a traditional desktop or an iPhone. We have also tried to make the site as attractive as possible to enhance the reading experience. We have added endnotes to the texts to explain confusing references and to translate when speakers use other languages.
In addition to our web site, we have also begun a podcast, which you can read about here. Our anthology is constantly growing. The best way to keep up with new additions to the anthology and with the newest podcast is by liking our Facebook page.
|
|
Norm Marmillion of Laura Plantation
talks to editors Bruce R. Magee and Stephen Payne on the
Louisiana Anthology
Podcast.
|
We acknowledge all the support we have had in the project. Our thanks to Louisiana Tech for providing the web space to house the Anthology. We thank all the people who have generously given us their time in sharing their knowledge with us. We also thank the Louisiana Tech students who have edited the individual works. We also thank you for your interest. Please contact us with your remarks and suggestions here. Come back often to see what we’ve added.