Authors, Artists & Artisans Friends
Do you have a Franco in your life? Someone who has French heritage? Someone who is interested in Franco history, culture or the French language? We are here to help! Below are links to the websites for artists, artisans, authors and shops where you can find something that might just make that special Franco in your life say a big Merci!
Authors
Marie- Josée Duquette
Marie-Josée Duquette has been the Culture, Francophonie and Academic Affairs Attaché for more than 3 years at the Québec Government Office in Boston. Born and raised in Montreal, Qc, she has lived in the Boston area for over 12 years. She has published two books in French in Quebec; “Une Québécoise à Boston (2017)” and “Histoire d’une vie trop courte (2015)“. Her home is as much in Quebec as in New England.
To purchase her books, click on the titles.
Becky Field, Photographer
Since 2012, photographer Becky Field has documented cultural diversity among immigrants in New Hampshire. Her photography project, “Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity,” has been exhibited throughout the Northeast. She has published two books, “Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity,” and “Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants.” Becky set up the “Different Roots, Common Dreams Scholarship Fund” at NH Charitable Foundation to help immigrants complete a college degree. She studied at photography centers throughout the Northeast. In the past she was a research ecologist and university professor. She holds a certificate in photography from the NH Institute of Art, and a doctoral degree in wildlife ecology.
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Janis Hennessey
Janis Hennessey is a children’s book author. She earned a master’s degree in French Literature from University of KY and a diploma in French History from the Sorbonne, Université de Paris, She taught French in KY, MA, and NH where she encouraged her students to write creatively in another language. She has written 3 series for children of all ages. Janis hopes the stories she imagines will ignite the joy of reading in each child.
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Abby Paige
Abby Paige is a writer and theater artist. A twelfth-generation settler to N’dakinna, the Wabanaki homeland, she was born and raised in northern Vermont on unceded Western Abenaki territory.
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She has recently published Piecework / Travail à la pièce, published by the University of Maine Press. And has authored two chapbooks of poetry, Clean Margins (Harbor Review Editor’s Prize, 2020) and Other Brief Discourses (above/ground press, 2013). Her writing has appeared in publications in the US, Canada, and the UK, including the 2020 Best Canadian Poetry Anthology. She is Drama & Book Review Editor for the on-line Franco-American literary journal, Résonance, and creator with Leah Souffrant of the LeAb Lab for performance research. Having returned to the US in 2021, she currently lives in Vermont.
Robert Perreault
Robert B. Perreault has worked as a research assistant/oral history interviewer, librarian/archivist, freelance writer, historical tour guide, public speaker, photographer, and conversational French teacher to promote Manchester’s history and New England’s Franco-American culture since 1973. His works of nonfiction and fiction, written in French, in English or in both languages, include seven books and more than 150 articles, essays, and short stories published in the US, Canada and France. Perreault holds an MA in French with specialization in New England Franco-American studies from Rhode Island College and an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from SNHU. In June 2012, Manchester’s Centre Franco-American named him “Franco-American of the Year.”
Emilie-Noelle Provost
Emilie-Noelle Provost is a writer, editor, and author who lives in a northeastern Massachusetts mill town — the same one that Jack Kerouac was from — with her husband, daughter, and three crazy rescue cats.
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Throughout her career, Emilie has worked as an editor for five magazine titles and has written hundreds of articles as both an editor and a freelancer. She was also the editor in chief of a media company for five years.
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Emilie has published several short stories in various magazines, journals, and anthologies, and is the author of The Blue Bottle. Her second novel, The River Is Everywhere, was published in March 2023 by Vine Leave Press.
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David Vermette
David Vermette is a researcher and writer who studies the history and identity of the descendants of French North America. He has been an invited speaker at universities and historical and genealogical societies. Vermette is a third generation Franco-American from Massachusetts.
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Artists & Artisans
Joe Deleault
Joe Deleault is an award winning international performer, composer, and session pianist who proudly celebrates his Franco-American heritage through music.
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His television and film credits include Grown Ups II, Dawson's Creek, PBS's Roadtrip Nation, NH Chronicle, Time and Charges, Heavenly Angle, and many more. His music composed for stage credits include On Golden Pond, Political Suicide, POEms, Shakespeare’s the Tempest, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many more.
Joe’s piano can be heard nightly on the opening theme to NH Chronicle on ABC. His recent projects include work with academy award-winner Ernest Thompson, filmmaker Ken Burns and StoryFirst.
In 2022, Joe won the Telly Award.
Lucie Therrien
Nationally & internationally acclaimed recording & film artist Lucie Therrien is a New Hampshire performer, certified teacher, composer, linguist, filmmaker, historian, author, poet, artist & speaker.
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A native of Newport, Vermont, she was educated in French schools in the Province of Quebec, and holds a B.A. degree in Piano Performance and a M.A. in Music History.
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She has toured in five continents, appearing in a variety of foreign consulates, Parliament agencies, on PBS-TV and Radio, the "Good Day! Show" in Boston, and on CBC-TV/Radio-Canada. In conjunction with Quebec's 400th anniversary in 2008, Lucie published a book/CD set titled "Dual Citizen-Deux Citoyennetés," subtitled "Memoir Glimpses -- Traditions French-Canadian". The colleciton includes 17 songs and poems presented on an included CD.​
Josée Vachon
Josée Vachon has been sharing her Franco-American upbringing for over 25 years through traditional and contemporary folksongs from Québec and Acadia and through her own compositions.
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Ms Vachon has 12 solo recordings to her credit, and continues to perform and record the music that best represents her love of Franco-American culture.
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Wendy Langelier – BY.ARLENEPOTTERY
Henri Vaillancourt
Two implements of indigenous invention were supremely important to the French in New France : the birchbark canoe, and the snowshoe. Daily seasonal activities, travel, exploration, and the highly profitable fur trade would have been inefficient without them. A native speaker from francophone majority Greenville NH, Henri has been self employed for 50 years in the building of birchbark canoes [and snowshoes in earlier years], and more importantly has devoted much of his life to researching manufacture and use of these implements among four Native tribes in Quebec. In 1977, he and associate Todd Crocker founded the Trust for Native American Cultures and Crafts, a 501c-3 non-profit foundation, dedicated to this work. Information on their videos and book on these subjects can be found below.