Brief Bio
About My Novels
Upcoming Events
Read My Work Online
Photograph
Literary Blog
Email
15.11.08
7.11.08
BRIEF BIO
Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels, Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon Books) and A Year and a Day (William Morrow). Her short fiction has appeared in many journals and magazines, including The Iowa Review, New England Review, The Sun, TriQuarterly, and Shenandoah. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Email address: Lpietr@aol.com
Literary blog: Work in Progress
Photo
Email address: Lpietr@aol.com
Literary blog: Work in Progress
Photo
ABOUT MY NOVELS
Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon Books)
Buy
Fifteen-year-old Alice dreams of her first kiss, has sleepovers, makes prank calls, auditions for "Our Town," and tries to pass high school biology. It's 1975, and at first look, her life would seem to be normal and unexceptional. But in the world that Leslie Pietrzyk paints, every moment she chronicles is revealed through the kaleidoscope of loss, stained by the fact that Alice's mother, without warning, without apology, explanation, or note, deliberately parks her car onto the railroad tracks, into the path of an oncoming train.
In the emotional year that follows, Alice and her older brother find themselves in the care of their great aunt, forced to cope and move forward after their catastrophic loss. Lonely and confused, Alice absorbs herself in her mother Annette's familiar rituals, trying to recapture their connection -- only to be stunned by the sound of her mother's voice speaking to her clear as day as she flips Sunday morning pancakes. Driven to understand who her mother was, Alice distances herself from her girlfriends and brother as she engages in "conversations" with Annette. As she works through her grief, Alice slowly begins to see Annette as an individual, separate from simply "my mother" -- and ultimately embraces the bittersweet knowledge that the lives to which we are most intimately connected often remain the most mysterious of all.
Taking its title from the pop-psychology idea that it should only take a year to get over the death of a loved one, A Year and a Day is an intense and deeply affecting portrait of how the human heart counters tragedy and can spin hard won triumph out of the deepest despair. A redemptive, often humorous meditation on growing up and growing into oneself, this is an intimate and heart warming novel to curl up with and to savor.
Buy
Pears on a Willow Tree is a multigenerational roadmap of love and hate, distance and closeness, and the lure of roots that both bind and sustain us all.
The Marchewka women are inseparable. They relish the joys of family gatherings; from preparing traditional holiday meals to organizing a wedding in which each of them is given a specific task -- whether it's sewing the bridal gown or preserving pickles as a gift to the newlyweds. Bound together by recipes, reminiscences and tangled relationships, these women are the foundation of a dignified, compassionate family--one that has learned to survive the hardships of emigration and assimilation in twentieth-century America.
But as the century evolves, so does each succeeding generation. As the older women keep a tight hold on the family traditions passed from mother to daughter, the younger women are dealing with more modern problems, wounds not easily healed by the advice of a local priest or a kind word from mother.
Amy is separated by four generations from her great-grandmother Rose, who emigrated from Poland. Rose's daughter Helen adjusted to the family's new home in a way her mother never could, while at the same time accepting the importance of Old Country ways. But Helen's daughter Ginger finds herself suffocating within the close-knit family, the first Marchewka woman to leave Detroit for the adventure of life beyond the reach of her mother and grandmother.
It's in the American West that Ginger raises her daughter Amy, uprooted from the safety of kitchens perfumed by the aroma of freshly baked poppy seed cake and pierogi made by hand by generations of women. But Amy is about to realize that there may be room in her heart for both the Old World and the New.
A Year and a Day (William Morrow)
Buy
The Marchewka women are inseparable. They relish the joys of family gatherings; from preparing traditional holiday meals to organizing a wedding in which each of them is given a specific task -- whether it's sewing the bridal gown or preserving pickles as a gift to the newlyweds. Bound together by recipes, reminiscences and tangled relationships, these women are the foundation of a dignified, compassionate family--one that has learned to survive the hardships of emigration and assimilation in twentieth-century America.
But as the century evolves, so does each succeeding generation. As the older women keep a tight hold on the family traditions passed from mother to daughter, the younger women are dealing with more modern problems, wounds not easily healed by the advice of a local priest or a kind word from mother.
Amy is separated by four generations from her great-grandmother Rose, who emigrated from Poland. Rose's daughter Helen adjusted to the family's new home in a way her mother never could, while at the same time accepting the importance of Old Country ways. But Helen's daughter Ginger finds herself suffocating within the close-knit family, the first Marchewka woman to leave Detroit for the adventure of life beyond the reach of her mother and grandmother.
It's in the American West that Ginger raises her daughter Amy, uprooted from the safety of kitchens perfumed by the aroma of freshly baked poppy seed cake and pierogi made by hand by generations of women. But Amy is about to realize that there may be room in her heart for both the Old World and the New.
A Year and a Day (William Morrow)
Buy
Fifteen-year-old Alice dreams of her first kiss, has sleepovers, makes prank calls, auditions for "Our Town," and tries to pass high school biology. It's 1975, and at first look, her life would seem to be normal and unexceptional. But in the world that Leslie Pietrzyk paints, every moment she chronicles is revealed through the kaleidoscope of loss, stained by the fact that Alice's mother, without warning, without apology, explanation, or note, deliberately parks her car onto the railroad tracks, into the path of an oncoming train.
In the emotional year that follows, Alice and her older brother find themselves in the care of their great aunt, forced to cope and move forward after their catastrophic loss. Lonely and confused, Alice absorbs herself in her mother Annette's familiar rituals, trying to recapture their connection -- only to be stunned by the sound of her mother's voice speaking to her clear as day as she flips Sunday morning pancakes. Driven to understand who her mother was, Alice distances herself from her girlfriends and brother as she engages in "conversations" with Annette. As she works through her grief, Alice slowly begins to see Annette as an individual, separate from simply "my mother" -- and ultimately embraces the bittersweet knowledge that the lives to which we are most intimately connected often remain the most mysterious of all.
Taking its title from the pop-psychology idea that it should only take a year to get over the death of a loved one, A Year and a Day is an intense and deeply affecting portrait of how the human heart counters tragedy and can spin hard won triumph out of the deepest despair. A redemptive, often humorous meditation on growing up and growing into oneself, this is an intimate and heart warming novel to curl up with and to savor.
UPCOMING EVENTS
AWP Conference: April 7-10, 2010
Hyatt Regency Hotel
650 15th Street
Denver, CO 80202
Declarations of Independence: Voices from The Writer's Center
Friday, April 9
1:30 PM to 2:45 PM
Room 401, 402 – CCC
Shhh!: Librarians, Archivists, and Writers Discover Research
Saturday, April 10
3:00 PM to 4:15 PM
Room: Agate Hyatt
Thursday, March 4, 2010
7:00 to 10:00 PM
The Writer’s Center
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815
Phone: 301 654-8664
Registration here.
Click here for Directions
The First Pages: What Makes a Good Beginning?
A One-Night Workshop
Most writers know that they have to “hook” their reader from the start of the story or novel, but how exactly do we do this? What, in other words, are the elements that make a great beginning to a story or novel? You’ll find out in this workshop, as we explore ways to strengthen your opening pages. Everyone is invited to bring 20 copies of the first page of one of their stories/novels/essays/memoirs for some hands-on advice.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Writer’s Center7:00 to 10:00 PM
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815Phone: 301 654-8664
Registration here.
Click here for Directions
How to Talk the Talk: Focus on Dialogue
A One-Night Workshop
Dialogue seems as though it should be easy since we all talk! But written dialogue should reverberate beyond the sounds of everyday conversation, serving many purposes: revealing character, moving the story forward, supporting your setting. How to accomplish these effects in your own fiction and memoir? This supportive, hands-on workshop offers tips and techniques that will help the voices of your characters come alive. We’ll be doing a number of exercises in class, so bring pen/paper!
Winter 2010
Teaching, Converse College Low-Residency Program
Teaching, Johns Hopkins Master of Arts in Writing Program
“Voice in Modern Fiction”
January-May 2010
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Writing Show: Novel Help From Writing Groups
Sponsored by James River Writers
How a writing group can prepare writers to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November or write the novel of a lifetime anytime.
Featuring:
Carolyn Parkhurst, author of The Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found.
Leslie Pietrzyk, author of Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and A Day.
Susann Cokal, author of Mirabilis and Breath and Bones.
September 24, 6:30-8:30 PM
The Children's Museum of Richmond
2626 West Broad Street
$10 in advance/$12 at the door/$5 for students
For more information and online registration visit jamesriverwriters.org
Fall 2009
Teaching, Converse College Low-Residency Program
**********
January 2009
Converse College, Spartanburg, SC
Writer in Residence
Thursday, February 12, 2009
1:30 pm – 2:30 p.m.
Book signing
Book Fair, AWP conference
Converse College table
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
Thursday, February 12, 2009
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Polish Museum of America
The Great Hall
984 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL
Five Polish writers (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) read and discuss how they have been shaped by the culture of the Mid-West and the culture of Poland.
There is free parking to the west of the building. The Museum can also be reached by the 56 Milwaukee Ave. bus (Augusta stop) or the blue line (three long blocks from either the Division or Chicago Avenue stops. A small donation is requested.
Friday, February 13, 2009
4:30 pm-5:45 pm
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
Ontario Room, 8th Floor
The Country They Come From: Polish-American Writers Read about the Midwest and Poland. (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) Polish-American writers have been writing in and about the Midwest for a 150 years. They have written novels, travel narratives, poems, songs and memoirs that commemorate the Midwest while memorializing the country these writers or their ancestors came from. Five recent Polish-American writers will demonstrate that this tradition is very much alive and vital. Free.
Sponsored by the AWP Writing Conference.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Conversations and Connections Writer’s Conference
Johns Hopkins University
1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW
(Dupont Circle)
Washington, DC
Details: www.writersconnectconference.com/wordpress/
Spring Classes 2009
The Writer’s Center
TBA
Friday, May 1, 2009
Unlocking Your Creative Side Through Word Collage
Northern Virginia Writers (NVW): First Friday Event
Leesburg Town Hall
25 West Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176
7:30 to 9:30 PM
Lower Level Meeting Room
Free-write exercises are meant to let your mind simply flow onto paper. Using these exercises, see how you can pick out the words and phrases that really sing and how they can be gathered and combined to create new stories or enhance something you’re working on. Bring paper and pen and be ready to unlock your creativity!
Details: https://www.writer.org/about/index.asp?id=19
May 15–17, 2009
The Sun magazine gathering
Rowe Conference Center
Rowe, Massachusetts
Details TBA
May 28-June 6, 2009
Converse College Low-Residency MFA Program
Open readings and lectures TBA
Spartanburg, SC
June 1, 2009
Memoir/Fiction workshop (SOLD OUT)
Have you always wanted to write but couldn't quite find the courage to pick up a pencil? Or perhaps you're a secret writer, scribbling stories in private notebooks, compulsively filling the pages of your journal? This supportive, hands-on workshop will give you courage to write and direction about how to proceed. Through discussion and writing exercises, participants will learn some basic techniques of fiction/memoir writing.The goal is to leave with several promising pieces to finish at home
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
$25 ($20 for members); sold out-- Email to join Wait List
Hub City Writers' Project
149 South Daniel Morgan Ave STE 2
Spartanburg, SC 29306
(864) 577-9349
Saturday, June 13, 2009
AIW Writer’s Conference
The George Washington UniversityCafritz Conference CenterMarvin Center Building 800 21st St. N.W.Washington, D.C.
Details: http://www.washwriter.org/
Hyatt Regency Hotel
650 15th Street
Denver, CO 80202
Declarations of Independence: Voices from The Writer's Center
Friday, April 9
1:30 PM to 2:45 PM
Room 401, 402 – CCC
Shhh!: Librarians, Archivists, and Writers Discover Research
Saturday, April 10
3:00 PM to 4:15 PM
Room: Agate Hyatt
Thursday, March 4, 2010
7:00 to 10:00 PM
The Writer’s Center
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815
Phone: 301 654-8664
Registration here.
Click here for Directions
The First Pages: What Makes a Good Beginning?
A One-Night Workshop
Most writers know that they have to “hook” their reader from the start of the story or novel, but how exactly do we do this? What, in other words, are the elements that make a great beginning to a story or novel? You’ll find out in this workshop, as we explore ways to strengthen your opening pages. Everyone is invited to bring 20 copies of the first page of one of their stories/novels/essays/memoirs for some hands-on advice.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Writer’s Center7:00 to 10:00 PM
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815Phone: 301 654-8664
Registration here.
Click here for Directions
How to Talk the Talk: Focus on Dialogue
A One-Night Workshop
Dialogue seems as though it should be easy since we all talk! But written dialogue should reverberate beyond the sounds of everyday conversation, serving many purposes: revealing character, moving the story forward, supporting your setting. How to accomplish these effects in your own fiction and memoir? This supportive, hands-on workshop offers tips and techniques that will help the voices of your characters come alive. We’ll be doing a number of exercises in class, so bring pen/paper!
Winter 2010
Teaching, Converse College Low-Residency Program
Teaching, Johns Hopkins Master of Arts in Writing Program
“Voice in Modern Fiction”
January-May 2010
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Writing Show: Novel Help From Writing Groups
Sponsored by James River Writers
How a writing group can prepare writers to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November or write the novel of a lifetime anytime.
Featuring:
Carolyn Parkhurst, author of The Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found.
Leslie Pietrzyk, author of Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and A Day.
Susann Cokal, author of Mirabilis and Breath and Bones.
September 24, 6:30-8:30 PM
The Children's Museum of Richmond
2626 West Broad Street
$10 in advance/$12 at the door/$5 for students
For more information and online registration visit jamesriverwriters.org
Fall 2009
Teaching, Converse College Low-Residency Program
**********
January 2009
Converse College, Spartanburg, SC
Writer in Residence
Thursday, February 12, 2009
1:30 pm – 2:30 p.m.
Book signing
Book Fair, AWP conference
Converse College table
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
Thursday, February 12, 2009
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Polish Museum of America
The Great Hall
984 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL
Five Polish writers (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) read and discuss how they have been shaped by the culture of the Mid-West and the culture of Poland.
There is free parking to the west of the building. The Museum can also be reached by the 56 Milwaukee Ave. bus (Augusta stop) or the blue line (three long blocks from either the Division or Chicago Avenue stops. A small donation is requested.
Friday, February 13, 2009
4:30 pm-5:45 pm
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
Ontario Room, 8th Floor
The Country They Come From: Polish-American Writers Read about the Midwest and Poland. (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) Polish-American writers have been writing in and about the Midwest for a 150 years. They have written novels, travel narratives, poems, songs and memoirs that commemorate the Midwest while memorializing the country these writers or their ancestors came from. Five recent Polish-American writers will demonstrate that this tradition is very much alive and vital. Free.
Sponsored by the AWP Writing Conference.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Conversations and Connections Writer’s Conference
Johns Hopkins University
1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW
(Dupont Circle)
Washington, DC
Details: www.writersconnectconference.com/wordpress/
Spring Classes 2009
The Writer’s Center
TBA
Friday, May 1, 2009
Unlocking Your Creative Side Through Word Collage
Northern Virginia Writers (NVW): First Friday Event
Leesburg Town Hall
25 West Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176
7:30 to 9:30 PM
Lower Level Meeting Room
Free-write exercises are meant to let your mind simply flow onto paper. Using these exercises, see how you can pick out the words and phrases that really sing and how they can be gathered and combined to create new stories or enhance something you’re working on. Bring paper and pen and be ready to unlock your creativity!
Details: https://www.writer.org/about/index.asp?id=19
May 15–17, 2009
The Sun magazine gathering
Rowe Conference Center
Rowe, Massachusetts
Details TBA
May 28-June 6, 2009
Converse College Low-Residency MFA Program
Open readings and lectures TBA
Spartanburg, SC
June 1, 2009
Memoir/Fiction workshop (SOLD OUT)
Have you always wanted to write but couldn't quite find the courage to pick up a pencil? Or perhaps you're a secret writer, scribbling stories in private notebooks, compulsively filling the pages of your journal? This supportive, hands-on workshop will give you courage to write and direction about how to proceed. Through discussion and writing exercises, participants will learn some basic techniques of fiction/memoir writing.The goal is to leave with several promising pieces to finish at home
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
$25 ($20 for members); sold out-- Email to join Wait List
Hub City Writers' Project
149 South Daniel Morgan Ave STE 2
Spartanburg, SC 29306
(864) 577-9349
Saturday, June 13, 2009
AIW Writer’s Conference
The George Washington UniversityCafritz Conference CenterMarvin Center Building 800 21st St. N.W.Washington, D.C.
Details: http://www.washwriter.org/
READ MY WORK ONLINE
“Ten Things,” short story, The Sun magazine:
"He once compared you to an avocado. He was never good at saying what he meant in fancy ways. (You had a boyfriend in college who dedicated poems to you, one of which won a contest in the student literary magazine, but that boyfriend never compared you to anything as simple and real as an avocado.)"
"Death Notice," essay, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine:
"No one likes to hear about such a loss. Euphemisms help: a loss. Passed on. I refuse those words because they're soft, hiding the reality that this could happen to you; someone you love could drop dead one Sunday morning while eating cornflakes. (Or that someone could be you.)"
“Valuables,” essay:
"The bank’s interior is tired and dated, everything with a dingy feel, as if dipped in yellow wax. The fluorescent lights buzz, a quiet, insistent, hissy whzz-zzzz. A phone rings softly in the distance, high heels tick across the floor. This is a very secure place, this bank, purposely giving the impression that nothing much has changed since it was built."
Reading Guide, A Year and a Day
For fun: my adventures learning how to can, The Washington Post:
"When novelist Leslie Pietrzyk told me that home canning is one of the 50 things she wants to do before she dies, I had to wonder what else is on the list. What's so exciting about putting up a couple jars of peaches?"
"He once compared you to an avocado. He was never good at saying what he meant in fancy ways. (You had a boyfriend in college who dedicated poems to you, one of which won a contest in the student literary magazine, but that boyfriend never compared you to anything as simple and real as an avocado.)"
"Death Notice," essay, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine:
"No one likes to hear about such a loss. Euphemisms help: a loss. Passed on. I refuse those words because they're soft, hiding the reality that this could happen to you; someone you love could drop dead one Sunday morning while eating cornflakes. (Or that someone could be you.)"
“Valuables,” essay:
"The bank’s interior is tired and dated, everything with a dingy feel, as if dipped in yellow wax. The fluorescent lights buzz, a quiet, insistent, hissy whzz-zzzz. A phone rings softly in the distance, high heels tick across the floor. This is a very secure place, this bank, purposely giving the impression that nothing much has changed since it was built."
Reading Guide, A Year and a Day
For fun: my adventures learning how to can, The Washington Post:
"When novelist Leslie Pietrzyk told me that home canning is one of the 50 things she wants to do before she dies, I had to wonder what else is on the list. What's so exciting about putting up a couple jars of peaches?"
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