Italian-American writer Helen Barolini will speak Thursday at MSU.

Barolini’s lecture, “One Writer’s Journey,” starts at 7:30 p.m. in 106 Kellogg Center. She will talk about the difficulties she encountered as an Italian-American woman in the early part of her career. She will also discuss Italian-American writers.

“Miss Barolini is an excellent writer on Italian-American heritage and in particular the immigrant experience,” said Charles Filice, a member of the Board of Directors of Lansing’s Italian-American Club.

The free lecture is open to the public. It is part of the Italian-American Club’s Italian-American Heritage Week celebration.

Barolini has written and edited seven books and essay collections. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a writing grant for her first novel, “Umbertina,” which was published in 1979. Her collection of essays, “The Dream Book: Writings by Italian-American Women,” won an American Book Award in 1985.

“She gives a different type of perspective in that she presents the feminist view,” Filice said.

The event is presented by the Center for Integrated Studies in Arts and Humanities and the Department of Romance and Classical Languages along with the Italian-American Club of Lansing.

Barolini’s work helps answer questions of identity, said Joe Francese, a professor in the Department of Romance and Classical Languages. She shows how ancestry affects people’s identity, he said.

“No one ever thought of bringing (Italian-American women) together and seeing what they have in common,” Francese said about “The Dream Book.”