Press release
For Immediate Release
Contact: JoAnn F. Cox
Awards Administrator
admin@shirleyjacksonawards.org
Celebrating Shirley Jackson on
Shirley Jackson Day, June 27, 2020
On Saturday, June 27th at 7:00pm, The John G. McCullough Free Library, in partnership with at The Left Bank in North Bennington, will host its annual celebration of the career of Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) with readings of her work. This event will be shared live via the McCullough Library Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mcculloughfreelibrary/. A gallery exhibit of art inspired by Jackson’s work will follow the readings. The celebration will begin at 7:00PM.
Jackson was a prolific author who lived in North Bennington, Vermont. Her several novels include We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House. She also wrote two popular memoirs, four books for children and hundreds of short stories. Jackson, who favored themes of mystery, psychology, and suspense, may be best known for “The Lottery,” one of the most widely read tales in modern fiction. June 27 is the “Lottery Day” of the original story. Its publication in The New Yorker was on June 26, 1948.
This year, Shirley Jackson Day will feature stories and excerpts of Shirley Jackson’s work, read by readers connected with the Shirley Jackson Awards:
Chikọdili Emelumadu was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire and raised in Nigeria. Her work has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Awards (2015), a Nommo award (2020) and the Caine Prize for African Literature (2017 & 2020). In 2019, she emerged winner of the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel prize. She tweets as @chemelumadu.
Miciah Bay Gault’s debut novel Goodnight Stranger (Park Row Books, HarperCollins, July 2019) is nominated for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards – Best Novel; the novel was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and selected as a First Fiction feature by Poets & Writers. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Southern Review, Agni, The Harvard Review, The New York Times’ Modern Love column, Poets & Writers, Salon.com, Electric Literature, and other magazines. A graduate of the Syracuse MFA program, Miciah served as editor of the literary journal Hunger Mountain for nine years. She now teaches in the MFA in Writing & Publishing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) and offers manuscript consultations at the VCFA novel retreat and through Word House in Brattleboro. She lives in Montpelier, VT with her husband, three kids, and nine chickens. Learn more at www.miciahbaygault.com (photo credit Daryl Burtnett)
Paul Tremblay is the award-winning author of Growing Things, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the forthcoming novel Survivor Song. His essays, reviews, and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family.
Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. Kaaron was a Fellow at the Museum for Australian Democracy, where she researched prime ministers, artists and serial killers. She’s judged the World Fantasy Awards and the Shirley Jackson Awards. She has published five multi-award winning novels (Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, The Grief Hole and Tide of Stone) and seven short story collections, including the multi-award winning Through Splintered Walls.
About the Shirley Jackson Awards
In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics with input from a Board of Advisors. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single- Author Collections, and Edited Anthology.
About The John G. McCullough Free Library
The John G. McCullough Free Library is a center for inquiry, expression and connection in North Bennington, Vermont. For further information about Shirley Jackson Day check their website (mcculloughlibrary.org) or contact Jennie Rozycki, Library Director at 802.447.7121 or at mclibrary@comcast.net
About the Left Bank
The Left Bank, which houses a variety of community programs, occupies the former Merchants Bank building at 5 Bank Street, North Bennington, Vermont. (leftbankcalendar.org)
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Media representatives who are seeking further information or interviews should contact JoAnn F. Cox.