Help!! Need book recommendations for workshop

Some quick background info. I'm in Russia, working as an ESL teacher. I usually work with general English classes, but I've just been invited (or hired, I should say) to teach 10 90-minute classes to graduate students of the Foreign Language Dept of the local Pedagogical University. Their level of English is great, so technically I can use any material with no problems. These are classes on Modern American Literature and I'm expected to cover about 5 writers (2 classes per writer). I'll be introducing the writer, talk about his life/work/etc and then share some of his work, with a follow-up that will include discussion of whatever was read. I want to do something different and stay away from classic, obvious choices. I want short story writers that can be considered influencial figures in the literary world over the past 20-30 years. I'll be using Bradbury for the first two lessons, but I'd rather have “newer” writers for the other classes. Nothing pre-1970. I want real, modern literature. I was thinking of using some of the Booker Prize winners, but this has to be about short stories, not novels.


Anyway, sorry for the long post.


Any suggestions? What writers should I be introducing? They don't have to be literary writers (genre fiction is ok). Ideas?

You guys are awesome! I've been looking online to see which of these writers are better for the class. I'm glad I don't have to choose just one! I am finding, however, that many writers who would be a great choice, like Carver, I can't use because there's nothing from them online (short stories), so I can't generate a full class around them (since I can't go to the library to make photocopies of actual books). I did find things by Bradbury, Barthelme and Wallace, however.

By the way, I love Borges and Calvino, but I'm limited to authors born in the US for this class, so they're out of the question.