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Leslie Pietrzyk

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.lesliepietrzyk.com

Twitter

lesliepwriter

Genre

Fiction, Literary Fiction, Memoir

Member Since

December 2014

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I am the author of Silver Girl, Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day (novels) and, most recently, Admit This to No One (short stories about official DC). My collection of linked stories about the death of my first husband, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Short fiction & essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, Hudson Review, The Sun, Shenandoah, Arts & Letters, Washingtonian, The Collagist, and Cincinnati Review. Oh, and one of my stories was awarded a 2020 Pushcart Prize--!!! I'm a member of the core fiction faculty at the Converse low-residency MFA program.

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43 posts
Leslie Pietrzyk's Blog

2025: Best Books (I Read)

Presenting my annual “best books” list, along with the accompanying list of caveats: these are, simply put, the best books I read over the course of the year. I try to narrow things down to 10ish books, which is awfully hard. I definitely read (and ADORE!) books by my writer friends, but I keep those books off this list. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: ALL lists are subjective. In Read more of this blog post »

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Published on December 10, 2025 12:57 • Tags: books, essays, fiction, narrative-nonfiction, poetry, short-stories, writers

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Leslie Pietrzyk’s books

Average rating: 3.79 · 1,660 ratings · 253 reviews · 19 distinct works • Similar authors

	Pears on a Willow Tree: A Sweeping Family Saga of Four Generations of Polish-American Women 3.73 avg rating — 583 ratings — published 1998 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Silver Girl 3.67 avg rating — 418 ratings — published 2018 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Year and a Day 3.87 avg rating — 287 ratings — published 2004 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Admit This to No One: Collected Stories 3.72 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 2021 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Angel on My Chest 4.39 avg rating — 128 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Maryland by Leslie Pietrzyk (Goodreads Author), Martha Kneib 4.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Till Death Do Us Part 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Maryland by Leslie Pietrzyk (Goodreads Author), Leslie Rauth it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2000	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peren aan een wilg really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Year and a Day : A Novel liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 10, 2025 12:58PM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 22, 2025 11:41AM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing THE PLACE THAT IS COMING TO US, poetry by J. D. Smith by J. D. Smith	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 19, 2025 11:33AM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing One Last Ride by Dan Elish (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 03, 2025 08:18AM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk liked Renee's review of Pink Lady: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series): "Denise Duhamel at her best. These elegies for her mother are so tender and loving while also being gritty and honest. The sweetness of grief meets the ugliness of real life, without any sentimentality, and, as always, punctuated by Denise's self-awar" Read more of this review »
Aug 29, 2025 08:56AM · see review
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing Pink Lady: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) by Denise Duhamel	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 29, 2025 08:56AM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies by Tom Perrotta	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 29, 2025 08:54AM · 1 like · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing The World According to Garp by John Irving (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 17, 2025 12:15PM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing Revisionaries: What We Can Learn from the Lost, Unfinished, and Just Plain Bad Work of Great Writers by Kristopher Jansma (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 06, 2025 08:47AM · like
Leslie Pietrzyk rated a book it was amazing Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 24, 2025 08:58AM · like

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Quotes by Leslie Pietrzyk (?)

“This darkness is for sleeping, for escape; it's where I go when the other places ache with light; this is where I curl up and close my eyes and darkness flows like lava, and I dissapear into what, into nothing, into pure dark, into what there is before there is anything else.”
― Leslie Pietrzyk

tags: pears-on-a-willow-tree

9 likes

“No one cares about the art of the lie at this point. They insist on impressing with the truth. See me! Look at me! Look at who I am! Look at who I want you to think I am!”
― Leslie Pietrzyk

tags: storytelling, truth

2 likes

“That's the problem with revealing true truths. They make people uncomfortable. The truth should be grand and exotic, but mostly it isn't. Mostly it's uncomfortable.”
― Leslie Pietrzyk

tags: storytelling, truth

2 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2867	1117	May 31, 2011 09:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2485	866	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM
All About Books: Terri's 2015 Reading Challenge	61	103	Dec 19, 2015 08:20PM
Netherlands & Fla...: Lente 2021 : Fruit in de titel	39	67	Jun 20, 2021 01:26AM

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