Becoming an American

In 2017 an aging Baby Boomer must be put in a nursing home. His son discovers a box of photographs spanning his father's life. The photos inspire stories to portray what it was like being an immigrant, a first generation American in the 1930s, and a young man facing life, love and loss across the 20th century.

Born in 1953 and a native of Brooklyn, New York, Burt Rashbaum was educated at the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A., 1975), and at the University of Colorado, (M.A., 1993). He has published poems, short stories, and non-fiction in Chicago; Palm Beach; Detroit; Miami, Denver, Oklahoma City; Boulder; Raleigh; Santa Fe; Sudbury, Massachusetts; Prattville, New York; Roseville, California; and Nederland, Colorado. In 1985 he was awarded the Human Interest Award by the National Lesbian and Gay press Association for his article (co-authored with Peter Ralin) on AIDS, "The Fragile Cord," and his poem, "My Beautiful Kite." His work was recently anthologized in XY Files: Poems on the Male Experience, published by Sherman-Asher Publishing Company of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is the author of A CENTURY OF LOVE, available through Xlibris in 2000. Mr. Rashbaum currently lives in Nederland, Colorado, with his wife Sharon, and son Max.