Writer Leslie Pietrzyk will read from her recent novel about four women in a Polish-American clan at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 24, at St. Casimir's National Catholic Church, 500 Simpson Road in Irondequoit.
Pietrzyk's selections from Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon Books, 1998) will highlight a program on American women of Polish descent in literature and history. Three members of the Polish American Historical Association, a national group dedicated to the study of Polish-American history and culture, will offer commentaries on the topic.
Admission to the program is free.
A Washington Post reviewer described this first book by Pietrzyk, who lives in Alexandria, Va., as "a rich, intricate, heartfelt novel that moves with a smoothness and sureness many experienced novelists will envy." It centers on the lives of three generations of women in a family that settles in Detroit and survives the hardships of emigration and assimilation in 20th-century America.
The program is the final event in this spring's Skalny Lecture and Artist Series sponsored by the Center for Polish and Central European Studies at the University of Rochester. For details, call (585) 275-9898.