The library will hold its next Book Club for Writers event on Thursday, July 28 at 7:00 PM, when we will discuss "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin. The program is free and open to the public, and copies of the stories are available at the library.
"The Lottery" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" are both relatively short stories that nevertheless have a powerful effect on readers, and our discussion will consider how they achieve such a concentrated impact. "The Lottery" is one of the best-known stories in American fiction, one that caused a sensation when published in The New Yorker in 1948; some readers cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine and sent hate mail to the author after it appeared. Le Guin says that "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" was inspired by a passage from the works of the philosopher William James; it won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story of 1973.
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year; the conversation particularly focuses on issues of craft and technique that will appeal to writers and aspiring writers, but the program is open to anyone who wishes to participate. The fall edition will be held on Thursday, October 27, when we will discuss "Some Other, Better Otto" by Deborah Eisenberg and "People Like That Are the Only People Here" by Lorrie Moore.
