Forgotten Women: Three overlooked short Story writers
Nancy Hale
Edith Pearlman
Hilma Wolitzer
Study Group Leader: Marlene Hobel [see Marlene's bio]
Meeting Times/Dates: Mondays, 9:30 am to 10:55 am, February 26 to May 6 (no class April 22)
Zoom Link: https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/95156452348?pwd=ZlZvaGtiUGNHdzlOUnk2eXlkZEFHZz09
Password: Marlene
Meeting ID: 951 5645 2348
Phone-in Number: 312 626 6799
Contact: marlenehobel@gmail.com
Course Description
Let me introduce you to three prolific female writers who time forgot.
Nancy Hale had 80+ stories published in the New Yorker and won 10 O’Henry Awards, yet we hardly recognize her name. When Lauren Groff compiled Hale’s collection Where the Light Falls in 2019, the Wall Street Journal dubbed them “affecting and sharply observed short stories from an unjustly neglected American master.”
Edith Pearlman published more than 200 short stories over four decades, mostly in the small literary magazines and presses. But her 2011 collection, Binocular Vision, lifted her out of relative obscurity making her a belated literary star at age 74. When it made the cover of the New York Times Book Review, novelist Roxana Robinson's rave review asked: “Why in the world had I never heard of Edith Pearlman?”
Hilma Wolitzer published her first short story, “Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket,” in 1966 and went on to publish numerous stories in the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Ms., along with nine novels. She received Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, and an American Academy of Arts Award in Literature. At age 91, she gained attention with a retrospective collection capped by a 2020 story about losing her husband to COVID.
Who are these forgotten women? Let’s explore them together. We’ll do a close reading and discuss a story each week to discover whether these overlooked writers still speak to us today.
Please see the class ground rules.
Course texts
Nancy Hale, Where the Light Falls: Selected Stories of Nancy Hale, Literary Classics of the United States, paperback edition - May 2023, (ISBN: 978-1-59853-748-2).
Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories, 2011, Lookout Books, paperback edition (ISBN: 978-0-9823382-9-2).
Two Hilma Wolitzer stories provided via PDF on this site (Weeks 9 and 10).
Objectives
Work together to probe and understand the stories.
Learn to "stay in the story" and mine each for meaning and writing craft.
Reach our own individual conclusions about the merit and appeal of their work. Answer the question, "Would I recommend her to others?"
ASSIGNMENTS
Each week of this website (see navigation bar at the top) details your assignment for that week's session. Please be sure to read all of the material on each week's page. Read each story at least twice—the first time to get the overall sense of the story, and the subsequent close reading(s) to analyze the story, considering the "think about" items I've included.
The Zoom link for each class is provided at the top of the home page and on the footer of each page.
The ground rules are included on each week's page as a reminder of how to engage in a fruitful, respectful discussion.