When Shirley Jackson's short story, The Lottery, was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, the magazine was inundated with letters, many of them hostile. Readers demanded an explanation. Why had this story been published? What did it mean? How could the author write such a story — especially a female author?!?
 
Yes, Jackson’s seemingly simple story spoke to the very complex issues of power, violence and the idea of “civil” society that lurk beneath the surface of our everyday lives.

F Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1941) was an American novelist and short story writer who captured the zeitgeist of the Jazz Age with his novels in the 1920s. His much-loved 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby is regarded as one of the great American novels.

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Like Gatsby, Babylon Revisited, published in 1931, deals with the theme of memory and the past, after the Wall Street crash of 1929.  

Angela Carter (1940-1992) was one of the preeminent British writers of the post-war period. She wrote novels, short stories, and poems, as well as non-ficton articles and journalism.

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The Company of Wolves comes from Carter's superb 1979 story collection, The Bloody Chamber, which consists of ten short stories which rework well-known classic fairy tales, opening them to more feminist readings.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was a British writer and novelist, whose much-loved novels, Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse are widely regarded to be among the great works of 20th century literature.

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Woolf's story, A Mark on the Wall is taken from the collection, Monday or Tuesday published in 1921. 

Born in 1906, Samuel Beckett was an Irish poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer. Best known for his 1953 play, Waiting for Godot, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969.

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Dante and the Lobster was published in Beckett's 1934 story collection, More Pricks than Kicks.  

Anton Chekov (1860-1904) was a Russian short story writer and dramatist. His plays, are regarded as modern classics, whilst his deft, beautifully crafted short fiction demonstrates a genuine control of the craft.

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"A Case History" was published in 1898, and is an exploration of the dehumanising effects of industrialisation.  

First published in the New Yorker in 2002, Jonathan Safran Foer's challenging and poignant story explores our ability to express our deepest emotions.

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A favourite of mine since I first read it in 2002, the story attempts to create a language for the depth of the familial emotion we all, at some level, feel, but struggle to fully express... something every one of us can relate to, whatever meaning of the word family we prefer to invoke.

Ernest Hemingway (1896-1961) was a novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1960. 

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Hemingway's story, "The Battler" was published in the 1924 story collection, In Our Time.

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Watch my short video on the story, here - The Battler

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a short story, poet, novelist, Utopian feminist, and social reformer.

She is best known for her 1892 story, "The Yellow-Wallpaper" an important work of feminist literature dealing with the human need for self-expression, and patriarchal attitudes to women's mental and physical health. 

Katherine Mansfield was one of the great short story writers of the 20th century, with works such as Bliss, In a German Pension, The Garden Party, and The Doll's House.

This class focuses on the short story, "The Fly" first published in 1923, in the collection, The Dove's Nest.