One of the most important things a really good piece of writing can do for a person is to unsettle them.  Shirley Jackson’s short stories are unsettling, even though at times they are also humorous. The writer Joyce Carol Oates wrote about Jackson: “Characterized by the caprice and fatalism of fairy tales, the fiction of Shirley Jackson exerts a mordant, hypnotic spell.”  In recent years there has been a significant resurgence of interest by literary scholars in the work of Shirley Jackson. In this class we will read several of her stories and discuss why she still has a lot to say about who we are and what we are capable of. 

The book: Shirley Jackson Novels and Stories published by The Library of America, ISBN: 978-1598530728, is available online or in the Calvin University campus store. 

Nancy Knol, leader, is a former middle and high school English teacher who continues to teach in part-time settings and devotes time to a book club in the Handlon State Prison. She has written extensive curriculum and is the author of three books:?Deeper Waters, a study of middle school,?A Boy Named Will, a children’s book, and?Inspired Words, a literature-based devotional book.?She has taught literature in our May term for five years.