Margaret Atwood.
There are quite a few who I’d like to see being read in 50 years, but they’re not even being read now. 
Anyone want to start a thread on fine contemporary writers who nobody’s heard of?
The first novel that came to mind was Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, who won the Nobel a couple of years ago. Meets all the criteria for a great, enduring novel to be taught in schools: crisp, taut, easy to read prose that develops into very complex, nuanced characters and ideas. Addresses race relations, sexual politics and personal growth. Has moments of quiet beauty while also having violence and betrayal.
A truly great book.
There are others worth discussing, but this is one of the best written in the past 20 years and should be taught everywhere.
PS: I will also mention The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien - another brilliant book. Already being used in many schools to my knowledge.
Bryce Courtenay
Neil Gaiman (American Gods, at least. If my mother had to study Stranger in a Strange Land in high school, why not?)
A quick glance at one English exam syllabus (PDF: http://www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/48393/English_Lit_Iss5.pdf) shows ‘modern prose’ texts as Louis de Bernieres, Margaret Atwood, Iris Murdochm, E M Forster and Chinua Achebe. It will be very interesting to see which of these see out the fifty-year test.
I don’t think his novels are any more single-generation focused than Hemingway’s. At least I hope not. He’s my current favorite novelist and a funny, in a wry deadpan manner, guy in person. I think his work has a chance to stand the test of time, especially Miss Wyoming and Hey! Nostradamus.
I’d like to nominate T Cooper. You may not have heard of T Cooper yet, but this author’s second novel Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes makes an even better case than Some of the Parts (outstanding in it’s own right) for this being one of the best young authors in America. This is definately someone to watch out for. Go out and buy it today.
I’ve never heard of that being assigned in high school . . . What year was this?
What about poetry? What contemporary poets will our grandchildren be forced to slog through?
The early 1970s (I don’t remember which year exactly), in southern California. One of her English teachers loved the book to death, and taught it from that basis, so I doubt that it was a widespread phenomenon.
The only one I’d feel safe enough to place any bets on would be Li-Young Lee, who’s arguably the best poet writing today.
For prose, I’d agree with Margaret Atwood being an author that’ll be taught in the future, especially The Handmaid’s Tale, which I see as being essential to the context of the late 90s. I’d also be surprised if some of Stephen King’s works didn’t make it into the mix as well; I can’t speak as to their literary merit, but they’ve certainly been prominent in our culture.
Funny, I’m reading American Gods this term in one of my college lit courses. It’s a 300-level on, in brief, “what happens to storytelling when cultures collide”. I’ve read and enjoyed the book for pleasure before, and I’m glad to have the chance to study it in an academic context.
It’s rumored that one of the Shakespeare professors on campus teaches the relevant parts of “Sandman” to her students, too.