The Conversation: Elly Fishman Discusses “Refugee High” (with her Dad)

Elly Fishman photographed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. /Photo: Alyssa Schukar

From NewCity Lit

When NewCity asked me to interview my daughter, Elly Fishman, in advance of her upcoming book, “Refugee High,” I knew I wanted to ask about the drama in making the book. When Elly talked about her work she related what she was learning about the people she was getting to know. And “Refugee High” focuses so completely on them that I still didn’t know how she got so close to them and on what terms. The book is about refugee students at Chicago’s Roger C. Sullivan High School, which today has one of the highest proportions of refugee students of any high school in America, all from the world’s worst troublespots. Our family also has a history as refugees, and many settled on Chicago’s North Side not far from Sullivan. One of Elly’s grandfathers fled with his parents and siblings from Germany when Nazis threw his brother over a bridge and killed his cousins. Naturally, our whole family has been following Elly’s work at Sullivan closely and getting to know the students, their families and the school staff through the stories she witnessed and collected during her three years of reporting.

As a writer who is the parent of a writer, reading how Elly balances the order and disorder of the diverse, messy, wondrous world of the refugee children at Sullivan into “Refugee High” is transcendent. There are few things more deeply personal than the ...

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