Roger Schatz

I have always been interested in writing poetry about my family’s Jewish traditions. In 2018, I started interviewing my grandpa (“Papa”) for what would become my new book, Laughing in Yiddish. He told me so many stories about family members who emigrated to the US from Russia’s Pale of Settlement, seeking safety from persecution and hoping for economic opportunities. From these conversations, my book blossomed into a series of poems chronicling my family’s roots in Chicago.