"Swimmer"

Abstract

The short story, published in the highly praised The Good Immigrant USA: 26 Writers Reflect on America (2019), a collection of autobiographical accounts written by first- or second-generation immigrants living in the United States during the presidency of Donald Trump, focuses on the coming-of-age story of Nicole Dennis-Benn. Despite now being the award-winning author of Here Comes the Sun (2016) and Patsy (2019), Dennis-Benn explains in her short story how she first took pre-med courses at Cornell University, before getting a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan. Even though she had always been passionate about reading and writing, Dennis-Benn points out that immigrants such as herself, who had to support the families they left back home, while also providing for themselves, did not have the luxury of following their dreams, having instead to settle for what supposedly was a sensible job, specifically the professions related to STEM subjects.