At the intersection of African ancestry and francophone households emerges a unique collection of voices that few libraries in the USA choose to highlight. The University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus now does. 

The purpose of collecting francophone authors from the African diaspora writing in Canada derives from its relative difficulty in finding them already in existence elsewhere. Students of French Literature may now choose to focus on Black voices emanating from Canada, with much greater ease too. Most of these authors live in the province of Quebec, many in and around Montreal. However, several of them also represent Haiti, the Black Caribbean, or West African nations, since they write with perspectives informed by growing up in those places.

Many of them write in more than one genre, including academic and children's literature. Each author's page with allow you to browse a few of these genres, but keep in mind that the Literatures and Languages Library will only collect their prose and verse publications. Some titles the university already has (noted with UIUC), others we hope to add (noted with WWW).

The Library subscribes to Rosetta Stone Foundations, which features 30 languages from around the globe. To enter the database, go to Rosetta Stone Foundations/ Alternative link . You can also use Rosetta Stone on a mobile device. To get set up, use the Tutorial for Rosetta Stone Mobile.

If you have trouble entering the database and signing up for an account, contact Paula Carns at pcarns@illinois.edu.

If you have difficulties once you set up your account, please use the "Contact Support" option at Rosetta Stone (linked off of the entry page).