In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of multi-dimensional writer Shirley Jackson, perhaps best known for her horror novels and short stories. We’re joined by three guests whose lives and careers have been influenced greatly by Jackson in different ways.
Laurence Jackson Hyman is the eldest child of Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman. He has spent most of his professional life in publishing, as a writer, photographer, editor, art director, and publisher. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of dozens of books and monographs, including two posthumous collections of his mother’s stories: Just an Ordinary Day and Let Me Tell You. He was an executive producer for the 2018 film adaptation of We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Bernice M. Murphy is an Associate Professor and Lecturer in Popular Literature at the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin. She has published extensively on topics related to American horror fiction and film and edited the 2005 collection Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy. Her latest monograph, The California Gothic in Fiction and Film has just been completed and will be published by Edinburgh University Press in Summer 2022.
Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for four decades. She was fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and SCIFICTION and currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com and Nightfire. She’s won multiple awards for her editing, including the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre” and the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, among others. She has edited numerous anthologies for adults, young adults, and children, including The Best Horror of the Year annual series, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, and most recently When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson.
They are interviewed by Nate King, Content and Communications Coordinator for the American Writers Museum.
Wonderful