Contributor Barbara Krasner’s story, “The Guardian,” is set in Poland. It’s one of 20 stories included in Volume II of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, available now from Press 53, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Barbara Krasner holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and an MA in History from William Paterson University. She frequently writes about the Holocaust. Her work has appeared in Jewishfiction.net, Jewish Literary Journal, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, and other publications. She teaches creative writing and Holocaust history in New Jersey.
Barbara’s comment on “The Guardian”—I visited my grandfather’s ancestral village in Poland in 2008 to research a novel. Then in the winter of 2009, I attended the Key West Literary Seminar on Historical Fiction. After hearing Ursula Hegi read, I thought more about the 80-year-old man who led me and two others through the village. I wondered about the burden he carried. I drafted the story on the spot.