Leslie Pietrzyk
Leslie Pietrzyk’s collection of linked stories set in DC, Admit This to No One, was published in 2021 by Unnamed Press. Her first collection of stories, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Short fiction appears in, among others, Ploughshares, Story Magazine, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Pithead Chapel, Ghost Parachute, and Okay Donkey. Awards include a Pushcart Prize in 2020.
Reading List
Enlightenment Will Come to All
She whispers slowly, “You’re not hearing me. It’s a difficult job, not because of typing. Because of who you’re typing for.”
Valentine’s Day
“It’s your worst habit.” She accuses him constantly, a waspish buzz to ignore: it’s the toothpick wagging between his teeth, or “Jesus fucking Christ” flying out even on Sundays, or letting crackers go stale with the inner bag left gaping …
Acquiescence
The body flew on a different plane, arriving in Detroit two days ago, at 7:37AM. She tracked its arrival online. Not a soldier or a famous politician, just her husband, age thirty, suddenly dead. His mother wanted him buried in …