Wednesday's Child

Wednesday's Child is the 1997 winner of the Maine Chapbook Award. It is in its fourth printing. It is taught in many university courses. This is a book about a female growing up, living in, trying to leave her cultural self behind, and then returning to the Franco-American cultural group which exists in the Northeast, and more specifically in Waterville, Maine. The book addresses what has been asked of me in order to be present to this cultural group of people. As a girl/woman who or how have I been asked to be? What has been asked of me? The book is written from the perspective of a contemporary woman who is also an historical person. The book is also as much about the conditions in which the Franco-American group exists as well as the writing about what it means to be Franco-American and female. This is a book about how we are our historical self while we are in the present. I am more of my past--than I am of the present moment--when it is in the present moment that I now exist. What is, or is not, reflected in my reality and the reality of other Franco-Americans? This book is about the female self and her formation through the many individuals and institutions around her. Through story and cultural filters, the book illustrates family, friends, religion, health, alcoholism, superstitions, art & craft, beliefs, values, song, recipe, story, coming-of-age, generations, motherhood, language, bilingualism, denials, sexuality and what constitutes a cultural individual in a society that will not always allow that person full access or realization to who she is. But she does it anyway.

Côté Robbins was brought up bilingually in a Franco-American neighborhood in Waterville, Maine known as "down the Plains".  Her maman came from Wallagrass, a town in the northern part of the state and her father was from Waterville. She has spent many years researching the origins and visiting the hometowns of her ancestors in Canada and France.
Cote Robbins was the winner of the Creative Nonfiction Maine Chapbook Award for her work of creative nonfiction entitled, Wednesday's Child which is taught in many university/college courses. 

Côté Robbins is also the author of creative nonfiction, memoir titled, 'down the Plains,' She is editor of Canuck and Other Stories, an anthology of translations of early 20th century Franco-American women writers who wrote about their immigration experience.

Côté Robbins is the founder and director of the Franco-American Women's Institute, FAWI, which disseminates information about the contributions of the French heritage women's lives.  She edited an anthology--a collection of 130 French heritage women's submitted works to celebrate FAWI's 20th Anniversary, titled, Heliotrope--French Heritage Women Create! This book project was crowdfunded by the Franco- American community's many supporters.  Heliotrope was a finalist in the Maine Writers & Publishers Anthology competition.