Shirley is a striking recent example of that strange and unsettling hybrid form, the largely fictionalised feature about a real person. But the atmosphere that the film conjures around its protagonist, the American horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss), is entirely in keeping with her life and work. Renowned for novels and stories that are both highly literary and landmarks of genre fiction, many of which have been ‘rediscovered’ and reissued in recent years, Jackson was a singular character who had to negotiate a complex family life and numerous health problems alongside her successful and controversial career as a writer.

Shirley, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell, examines the period around the writing of Jackson’s second novel, Hangsaman. Provoking complex responses on its release, the film ‘is far from a traditional biopic, instead playing on the horror tropes of Jackson’s own work to lure viewers inside the author’s brilliant but troubled mind’ (Harper’s Bazaar).

Following the screening, host Gareth Evans will be joined via video link by Joyce Carol Oates, editor of the Library of America edition of Jackson’s novels and stories, for a conversation and Q&A. They will discuss the film’s portrayal of Jackson’s life and work, as well as screen adaptations of Oates’s own novels.