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It seems we're always reinventing the wheel. There are MANY Polish American novels, novellas, and short story collections (in English--there is also a body of Polish-language Polish American literature), starting mainly from about the 1930s (though some short stories were published in English from the beginning of the 20th century). There is also a full-length scholarly study of Polish American literature, Thomas Gladsky's Princes, Peasants and Other Polish Selves. In addition, Gladsky and his wife, Rita, edited a collection of essays on literature by Polish American women, Something of My Very Own to Say (I have an essay in this collection on immigrant women authors who wrote in Polish).
At one time I had a complete bibliography of the English-language works, but it would take me a little while to dig that up right now because I have a new laptop and haven't transferred all my files, and I stopped updating it several years ago. But here's a short list off the top of my head with a few unscientific comments that are sure to offend:
Ruth Tabrah, Pulaski Place (1940s? Tabrah was not Polish and though her novel got a lot of attention, it shows a distorted understanding of Polonia; still, it's often cited)
Helen Bristol, Let the Blackbird Sing (1950s) A novel in free verse (!) about the process of immigration and adjustment. The verse gets a little trying after a while, but it's still very good.
Matt Babinski, By Raz (self-published in the 1960s?) An excellent novel which deserved more attention. Babinski wrote two other novels as well, all self-published
Richard Bankowski, A Glass Rose (1950s) and several other novels. Set in Buffalo. Psycological and probably not to the taste of many of the readers on this list, who don't seem to like troubled Pol-Am characters and dark treatments of our community
Anthony Bukoski, Polonaise and other collections of short stories (1990s). Anything by Tony is good! He'll have a new collection coming out this year from Southern Methodist Press
Verlyn Klinkenborg, The Last Fine Time (1980s?) The author is not Pol-Am, but his wife is, and this is basically a fictionalized story of the Buffalo bar her family owned.
Melissa Kwasny, Trees Call for What They Need(1990s) As I recall, this novel includes a Polish immigrant lesbian. Reason enough to read it!
John Mikulski, In Sinnamahoning Uplands (1950s) Promising but poorly written
Ken Parejko, Remember Me Dancing (1990s) Set in Wisconsin. Sincere effort, dreadful writing.
Joseph Wedda, Jasna Polana (1950s) Sophisticated novel set in Michigan. Deserves more attention, but it's not easy to find nowadays. Despite the title, it's written in English
Stuart Dybek, various collections of short stories (1980s, 1990s) One of Polonia's very finest writers. Read anything and everything he writes!
Gary Gildner, various titles, including a new memoir about his Polish grandfather. Also very good
Suzanne Strempek Shea (of course everyone knows about her already)
Ellen Slezak, Last Year's Jesus (2000?) Collection of short stories, some about Detroit Polonia, from a promising new writer
Leslie Pietrzyk, Pears on a Willow Tree (1990s) Detroit Polonian family. Pietrzyk will have another novel out later this year.
Natalie Petesch, The Immigrant Train (1990s) Collection of short stories. I can't recommend this highly enough!
Elaine Jagier Mark Shaw, The View from Three Windows (1980s) Interesting novel about early Chicago Polonia. Makes you wish it were better
Monica Krawczyk, If the Branch Blossoms (1950s) Collection of short stories, mostly set in Minnesota. Krawczyk is our first professional fiction writer in English
Keith Maillard, The Clarinet Polka (2003) I love this new novel! Maillard isn't Pol-Am, but his depiction of working class midwestern Polonia in the 1960s reads so true to me
Sophia Healy, Lone Stars (1990s) Set in Texas. Good enough
I'm sure I'm leaving some works out that I'll be embarrassed to remember later. There are also several published poets of note, including John Minczeski and Victor Contoski, and of course Victoria Janda from the 1950s.
There are also some very fine children's novels about Polonia:
Eleanor Estes's The One Hundred Dresses (1950s? Reprinted recently, I think)
Anne Pellowski's excellent set of novels about a Wisconsin immigrant family and their descendants (First Farm in the Valley is the first in the set, I think)
Susan Bartoletti's Dancing with Dziadziu (I cry all the way through it no matter how many times I read it) and her GREAT novel for adolescent readers about an immigrant Polish girl, Coal Miner's Bride
Maxine something's An Ellis Island Christmas
...De Angelo's Up the Hill (1950s) Very fine
And those are just the ones I can remember--there's a whole lot out there, and much of it even worth reading! Not to mention giving as gifts (especially to our younger generation) and ordering for our local libraries.
Karen Majewski
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