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Published Feb. 23, 2022

“Favorites of the Gods: An Anthology of Short Fiction by News Orleans Creoles of Color, 1837-1867” by Dr. Chris Michaelides of ULM is a collection of stories he devoted 10 years translating from French into English. The cover illustration is “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” by Henry Ossawa Tanner (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, public domain).

Jeanette Robinson/ULM Photo Services

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Dr. Chris Michaelides, University of Louisiana Monroe Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Education, and Sciences, and Associate Professor of Modern Languages, recently completed a 10-year project to produce a critical edition of selected works by 19th-century African American writers from Louisiana. 

 

His book, “Favorites of the Gods: An Anthology of Short Fiction by New Orleans Creoles of Color, 1837-1867,” is a collection of 10 short stories originally published in French by eight authors before, during, and after the Civil War. Most have never been translated and published for English-speaking readers. The stories are annotated, and an introduction provides historical background as well as literary perspectives.

 

The volume is published by Éditions Tintamarre, an academic press based in Centenary College, whose mission is to help preserve Louisiana’s francophone cultural heritage by making historically significant texts and new creative works available – in the original French or in translation ­– to students and scholars. 

 

“These stories and the writers who published them are an important part not only of Louisiana’s cultural heritage but of American history and identity. So this volume contributes to an effort to make them better known — to rescue them, in a way, from the obscurity of archives,” Michaelides said.

 

The writers in “Favorites” were leading educators, artists, and activists within the New Orleans community of Creoles of color – a term that refers to people of mixed racial heritage, with both Latin European (especially French) and Afro-Caribbean (primarily Haitian) ancestry. 

 

According to Michaelides, the 19-century authors addressed issues that are still relevant today, making these works from the past especially appropriate during February and Black History Month. Deprived of basic civil rights, they protested systemic racial injustice and fought for radical reforms at the state and national levels. 

 

“In the wake of the Civil War,” he explained, “they spearheaded a progressive movement to extend full citizenship to African Americans, oppose segregation in public spaces, and end racial discrimination. They played a crucial role in the history of American democracy, so they are a vital part of our national DNA. In that sense, my hope is that learning about these writers and reading their stories will allow us all to learn more about ourselves.”

 

Tintamarre Director and General Editor, Dr. Dana Kress, Professor of French and Chair of the Foreign Language Department at Centenary, described Michaelides’s work as “10 of the crown jewels of 19th-century literature. I honestly don’t think a better translation is possible.”

 

“The eight authors contained in this book spoke about race with an authority and audacity that could have cost them their lives at any moment — and yet they wrote. They wrote out of the conviction that a better world was possible; they wrote for future readers that they conjured up by the power of their pens and their imaginations,” Kress said.

 

 The short stories written during this period were initially published in the French edition of the New Orleans Tribune, a newspaper founded and managed by people of color, which championed the progressive political platform of radicals, both black and white.

 

Michaelides recalled that “Favorites” started in a ULM classroom, a seminar he taught some years ago on francophone Louisiana literature. 

 

“It was a very special group of students,” he said, “and studying the original texts with them was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a teacher. They were excited to explore the stories, and our discussions inspired me to launch my work on this anthology.” 

 

The stories from deep in Louisiana history beg the question, what has changed in more than 162 years?

 

“It’s amazing to think that these stories were actually published in the nineteenth century,” he said. “They are dramas about the ordeals of interracial couples who struggle against prejudice, legal restrictions, and the threat of violence. When I first came across them, I couldn’t believe what I was reading, and I wanted to make the authors more widely known. The efforts of these African American leaders to advance the principles of freedom, inclusion, and equality in tumultuous times are part of a heritage that belongs to all Americans and that we should all celebrate.”

 

“Favorites of the Gods: An Anthology of Short Fiction by New Orleans Creoles of Color (1837-1867) can be ordered from Éditions Tintamarre, https://www.editionstintamarre.com, for $15.95, plus $4.50 shipping.