Best Short Story Writers of 1951-2000
I will make another list of the best 19th century short story writers. There are far too many good writers for just 10, so dividing them up by century made sense with the 20th century divided again. Dividing the 20th C. still presents problems as where do authors with long careers or who straddle the dividing line belong (Welty, Capote, Bradbury, Porter, Salinger, Jackson for example). Off the top of my head I came up with over thirty writers. My mother, an English teacher who was my high school English teacher 9th-12th grades, incidentally, came up with even more names.
Our most recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature who is also a 21st century writer
Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery fiction.Widely known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and his science-fiction and horror-story collections, The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and I Sing the Body Electric (1969), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers. While most of his best known work is in speculative fiction, he also wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). ...read more.
He could also go on the first half of the 20th C. list, but since his heyday was the 50s and 60s, I put him here.
Jerome David "J.D." Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. I haven't read 'Nine Stories' yet, but I'm definitely very fond of 'The Catcher in the Rye' and of 'Franny and Zooey'. Okay, okay, these are not short stories, (forgive me for babbling away! ) but whenever I see the name Salinger somewhere, these two little diamonds automatically come in my mind. People who haven't read them, well, they don't know what they are missing! Especially, I find 'Franny and Zooey' terribly underrated in comparison with 'The Catcher in The Rye'. Actually, both are equally inspirational.
Another one who straddles the line. He wrote a lot of stories in the 40s, but his most famous works, including the collection "Nine Stories" was published in the 50s.
I'm betting she will soon win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. Many of his most well-known novels include Carrie, It, The Shinning, The Stand, Misery, The Dark Tower series, and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, which was later adapted into the film The Shawshank Redemption which is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.
She's one who straddles the line diving the century, but most of her stories and all of her novels are post 1950.
