This essay is part of the fabric of Sandy Wisenberg's history. "I've always been obsessed with Anne Frank. When I was really young, about seven, I had two role models as a writer: Louisa May Alcott and Anne Frank. As a child I identified with someone who wanted to write. I even patterned my diary entries after hers sometimes like, 'Dear Kitty.'"

In 1992, some years beyond her seventh birthday, Wisenberg received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and used the money to go to Europe where she went to see the Anne Frank House. This was her second visit there and the time when she noticed the list of French vocabulary words she uses so creatively in "Margot's Diary." During this trip she also did some research in the Frankfurt Jewish Museum and, finding the Frank's home address, visited there. Wisenberg describes the development of this piece as an organic part of her life. "It was ongoing. I don't really remember how I did it, when I did it. It just happened."

On the other hand, she was certain and sober about her intended focus. "I read somewhere that she [Margot] had a diary. There were millions of people who kept diaries-- or didn't--but whose voices are gone, were stilled," a point made most poignantly in her sentence, "There should be plaques on houses throughout Europe. A Jew lived here and was taken away." Wisenberg provides these missing voices through imagining Margot's, a point of contention in publishing this work as nonfiction. While she uses quotes as though the words were actually said, she had hoped she was making it clear that the words were her own creation with the use of the speculative "perhaps" and "Margot didn't write."

Wisenberg "didn't say" that by stringing together the French vocabulary words she gave Margot a purpose for having had to learn them, but thought that this was an interesting interpretation. On the other hand, she did say that "we don't have any of Margot's words and the only thing we have connected with Margot are these vocabulary words. It's still inadequate to try to reconstruct their lives using them, but that's all we have. With 'this is not her bouquet,' I'm emphasizing that this is not hers; this is a total construction."

This is not Wisenberg's first piece on the Holocaust theme. She has published several others and had thoughts about why this period in history is so riveting and compelling. "It's an easy way to have a Jewish identity. We were victims, we suffered, we didn't do anything wrong. Everybody wonders what you would do if it came to life and death. And it makes them wonder how they would survive when everything is gone."

The Jewish theme is not her only preoccupation. She has written a piece about not getting enough sleep and one about public transportation in Chicago where she is the nonfiction editor for Another Chicago Magazine. She is currently working on a novel "with a whole bunch of little essays embedded into it." She reports it is "getting easier after seven years of torture." (A word she doesn't like to use in this context, having an understanding of what true torture can be).

This new novel is in pieces, not unlike "Margot's Diary" and she is letting them exist as pieces. She thinks (hopes) the fragmented essay will become more mainstream. Wisenberg understands that her comfort with fragments will confuse others, but believes that "there is a home for every piece of writing." When you're young, like seven, you might believe that there is only a couple of ways to write. Wisenberg's very adult work offers the possibility of having the courage to imagine others.

Karen Rosica