Frayed Lives: A Family Memoir Stitched Into Holocaust History

Debra Michlewitz grew up as a ＂stranger in a strange land,＂ as a first generation American in a Brooklyn household cobbled together from fragments surviving the Holocaust. Her truncated family, only mother, father, and brother, embraced all things American: language, education, custom, and ambition. Her New York City public school education equipped her for a rewarding 39 year career as a New York City public high school English / Humanities teacher, winning recognition from Poet’s House, Univision, and the New York State Senate. She honed her narrative skills by writing ＂thousands＂ of riveting college recommendations for gifted students seeking admission to elite colleges. She earned a B.A. in English with Honors in Writing and a M.A. in 18th Century English Literature from Brooklyn College and a M.L.S. from Queens College. Her master’s thesis, In the Eye of the Beholder, explored Laurence Sterne’s depiction of memory in Tristram Shandy, good preparation for the writing of Frayed Lives. Currently Debra Michlewitz is a consultant for the NYC Department of Education and a school groups docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She lives in Queens with her husband Dennis Lebwohl and often vacations at a family summer home in Falmouth, Massachusetts.