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.