Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Black Water'' (1992), ''What I Lived For'' (1994), and '' Blonde'' (2000), and her short story collections ''The Wheel of Love'' (1970) and ''Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories'' (2014) were each finalists for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

. She has won many awards for her writing, including the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

, for her novel ''

them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Wels ...

'' (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the

National Humanities Medal The National Humanities Medal is an American award that annually recognizes several individuals, groups, or institutions for work that has "deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the huma ...

, and the

Jerusalem Prize The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Forum (previously k ...

(2019). Oates taught at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. Since 2016, she has been a visiting professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, where she teaches short fiction in the spring semesters. Oates was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2016.

Early life and education

Oates was born in Lockport, New York, the eldest of three children of Carolina (''née'' Bush), a homemaker of Hungarian descent, and Frederic James Oates, a tool and die designer. She grew up on her parents' farm outside the town. Her brother, Fred Jr., and sister, Lynn Ann, were born in 1943 and 1956, respectively. (Lynn Ann is severely

autistic The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

and institutionalized, and Oates has not seen her since 1971.) Oates grew up in the working-class farming community of Millersport, New York, and characterized hers as "a happy, close-knit and unextraordinary family for our time, place and economic status", but her childhood as "a daily scramble for existence". Her paternal grandmother, Blanche Woodside, lived with the family and was "very close" to Joyce. After Blanche's death, Joyce learned that Blanche's father had killed himself, and Blanche had subsequently concealed her

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

heritage; Oates eventually drew on aspects of her grandmother's life in writing the novel ''

The Gravedigger's Daughter ''The Gravedigger's Daughter'' is a 2007 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 36th published novel. The novel was based on the life of Oates's grandmother, whose father, a gravedigger settled in rural America, injured his wife, threatened his da ...

'' (2007). Violence marred the lives of Oates and her recent ancestors: Oates's mother's biological father was murdered in 1917, which led to Oates mother's informal adoption; and Oates's paternal grandmother survived, at age fourteen, an attempted murder-suicide at the hands of her own father. As a child, Oates’s next-door neighbor pled guilty to charges of arson and attempted murder of his family, and was sentenced to a prison term at

Attica Correctional Facility Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum security campus New York State prison in the Town of Attica, New York, operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It was constructed in the 1930s in response t ...

. Oates attended the same one-room school her mother had attended as a child. She became interested in reading at an early age and remembers Blanche's gift of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) as "the great treasure of my childhood, and the most profound literary influence of my life. This was love at first sight!" In her early teens, she read the work of Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner,

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

, and

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and h ...

, writers whose "influences remain very deep". Oates began writing at the age of 14, when Blanche gave her a typewriter. Oates later transferred to several bigger, suburban schools and graduated from Williamsville South High School in 1956, where she worked for her high school newspaper. She was the first in her family to complete high school. As a teen, Oates also received early recognition for her writing by winning a Scholastic Art and Writing Award.

University

Oates earned a scholarship to attend Syracuse University, where she joined Phi Mu. She found Syracuse to be "a very exciting place academically and intellectually", and trained herself by "writing novel after novel and always throwing them out when I completed them". It was at this point that Oates began reading the work of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

, and Flannery O'Connor, and she noted, "these influences are still quite strong, pervasive". At the age of 19, she won the "college short story" contest sponsored by '' Mademoiselle''. Oates was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

as a junior and graduated

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

from Syracuse University with a B.A. '' summa cum laude'' in English in 1960, and received her M.A. from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in 1961. She was a Ph.D. student at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

but left to become a full-time writer. Evelyn Shrifte, president of the Vanguard Press, met Oates soon after Oates received her master's degree. "She was fresh out of school, and I thought she was a genius", Shrifte said. Vanguard published Oates' first book, the short-story collection '' By the North Gate'', in 1963.

Career

The Vanguard Press published Oates' first novel, '' With Shuddering Fall'' (1964), when she was 26 years old. In 1966, she published " Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", a short story dedicated to

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and written after listening to his song " It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The story is loosely based on the serial killer

Charles Schmid Charles Howard Schmid, Jr. (July 8, 1942 – March 30, 1975), also known as the Pied Piper of Tucson, was an American serial killer whose crimes were detailed by journalist Don Moser in an article featured in the March 4, 1966, issue of ''Life'' ...

, also known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson". It has been anthologized many times and adapted as a 1985 film, ''

Smooth Talk ''Smooth Talk'' is a 1985 film directed by Joyce Chopra, loosely based on Joyce Carol Oates' short story " Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1966), which was in turn inspired by the Tucson murders committed by Charles Schmid. The pro ...

'', which starred

Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards. Born to actor Bruce Dern and act ...

. In 2008, Oates said that of all her published work, she is most noted for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"Truman, Cheryl
"Author Joyce Carol Oates is always at her finest"
(reprint), '' Lexington Herald-Leader'', 2008. Retrieved on October 29, 2008. Joyce Carol Oates 1972

Another early short story, "In a Region of Ice" (''The Atlantic Monthly'', August 1966), features a young, gifted Jewish-American student. It dramatizes his drift into protest against the world of education and the sober, established society of his parents, his depression, and eventually murder-cum-suicide. It was inspired by a real-life incident (as were several of her works) and Oates had been acquainted with the model of her protagonist. She revisited this subject in the title story of her collection ''Last Days: Stories'' (1984). "In the Region of Ice" won the first of her two O. Henry Awards. Her second novel was ''A Garden of Earthly Delights'' (1967), first of the so-called Wonderland Quartet published by Vanguard 1967–71. All were finalists for the annual National Book Award. The third novel in the series, ''

'' (1969), won the 1970

National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...

. It is set in Detroit during a time span from the 1930s to the 1960s, most of it in black ghetto neighborhoods, and deals openly with crime, drugs, and racial and class conflicts. Again, some of the key characters and events were based on real people whom Oates had known or heard of during her years in the city. Since then she has published an average of two books a year. Frequent topics in her work include rural poverty, sexual abuse, class tensions, desire for power, female childhood and adolescence, and occasionally the '

fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, charac ...

'. Violence is a constant in her work, even leading Oates to have written an essay in response to the question, "Why Is Your Writing So Violent?" In 1990, she discussed her novel, '' Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart'', which also deals with themes of racial tension, and described "the experience of writing t as "so intense it seemed almost electric". She is a fan of

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and novelist Sylvia Plath, describing Plath's sole novel ''

The Bell Jar ''The Bell Jar'' is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The boo ...

'' as a "near perfect work of art", but though Oates has often been compared to Plath, she disavows Plath's romanticism about suicide, and among her characters, she favors cunning, hardy survivors, both women and men. In the early 1980s, Oates began writing stories in the Gothic and horror genres; in her foray into these genres, Oates said she was "deeply influenced" by Kafka and felt "a writerly kinship" with

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

. In 1996, Oates published ''

We Were the Mulvaneys ''We Were the Mulvaneys'' is a novel written by Joyce Carol Oates, and was published in 1996. ''We Were the Mulvaneys'' was featured in Oprah's Book Club in January 2001. The novel chronicles the Mulvaneys, a seemingly perfect family living in ...

'', a novel following the disintegration of an American family, which became a best-seller after being selected by Oprah's Book Club in 2001. ''

'' was eventually turned into a TV movie, which was nominated for several awards. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Oates wrote several books, mostly suspense novels, under the pen names Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly. Since at least the early 1980s, Oates has been rumored to be a favorite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature by oddsmakers and critics. Her papers, held at Syracuse University, include 17 unpublished short stories and four unpublished or unfinished novellas. Oates has said that most of her early unpublished work was "cheerfully thrown away". One review of Oates's 1970 story collection ''The Wheel of Love'' characterized her as an author "of considerable talent" but at that time "far from being a great writer". Oates's 2006 short story "Landfill" was criticized because it drew on the death, several months earlier, of John A. Fiocco Jr., a 19-year-old New Jersey college student. In 1998, Oates received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature, which is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in American literature.

''Ontario Review''

Oates founded ''The Ontario Review'', a literary magazine, in 1974 in Canada, with Raymond J. Smith, her husband and fellow graduate student, who would eventually become a professor of 18th-century literature. Smith served as editor of this venture, and Oates served as associate editor."Raymond Smith, 77, Founder and Editor of Literary Journal"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 27, 2008. Retrieved on October 29, 2008. The magazine's mission, according to Smith, the editor, was to bridge the literary and artistic culture of the US and Canada: "We tried to do this by publishing writers and artists from both countries, as well as essays and reviews of an intercultural nature." In 1978, Sylvester & Orphanos published ''Sentimental Education''. In 1980, Oates and Smith founded Ontario Review Books, an independent publishing house. In 2004, Oates described the partnership as "a marriage of like minds – both my husband and I are so interested in literature and we read the same books; he'll be reading a book and then I'll read it – we trade and we talk about our reading at meal times ...".

Teaching career

Oates taught in Beaumont, Texas, for a year, then moved to Detroit in 1962, where she began teaching at the University of Detroit. Influenced by the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, the 1967 Detroit race riots, and a job offer, Oates moved across the river into Canada in 1968 with her husband, to a teaching position at the University of Windsor in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. In 1978, she moved to

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

, and began teaching at

. Among others, Oates influenced

Jonathan Safran Foer Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels '' Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), '' Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fiction works ''Eati ...

, who took an introductory writing course with Oates in 1995 as a Princeton undergraduate.Nash, Margo
"Learning to Write From the Masters"
''

'', December 1, 2002. Retrieved on October 29, 2008. Foer recalled later that Oates took an interest in his writing and his "most important of writerly qualities, energy,"Birnbaum, Robert
"Jonathan Safran Foer: Author of Everything is Illuminated talks with Robert Birnbaum"
IdentityTheory.com, May 26, 2006. Retrieved on October 29, 2008. noting that she was "the first person to ever make me think I should try to write in any sort of serious way. And my life really changed after that." Oates served as advisor for Foer's senior thesis, which was an early version of his novel '' Everything Is Illuminated'' (published to acclaim in 2002). Oates retired from teaching at Princeton in 2014 and was honored at a retirement party in November of that year. Oates has taught creative short fiction at UC Berkeley since 2016 and offers her course in spring semesters.

Views

Religion

Oates was raised

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

but as of 2007 is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. In an interview with ''

Commonweal Commonweal or common weal may refer to: * Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community * Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group * ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Catholic-oriented magazin ...

'' magazine, Oates stated, "I think of religion as a kind of psychological manifestation of deep powers, deep imaginative, mysterious powers which are always with us."

Politics

Oates self-identifies as a liberal, and supports gun control. She was a vocal critic of former US President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

and his policies, both in public and on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Oates opposed the shuttering of cultural institutions on Trump's inauguration day as a protest against the President, stating this "would only hurt artists. Rather, cultural institutions should be sanctuaries for those repelled by the inauguration." In January 2019, Oates stated that "Trump is like a figurehead, but I think what really controls everything is just a few really wealthy families or corporations."

Twitter

Oates is a regular poster on Twitter with her account given to her by her publisher

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

. She has drawn particular criticism for the purportedly perceived

Islamophobia Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...

of her tweets. Oates stated in her criticized tweet, "Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemicEgyptnatural to inquire: what's the predominant religion?" She later backtracked from that statement. Oates was also criticized for responding to a Mississippi school's pulling of ''

To Kill a Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

'' from its eighth grade curriculum with a tweet claiming that Mississippians do not read. Oates defended her statements on Twitter saying, "I don't consider that I really said anything that I don't feel and I think that sometimes the crowd is not necessarily correct. You know, Kierkegaard said, 'The crowd is a lie.' The sort of lynch mob mentality among some people on Twitter and they rush after somebodythey rush in this direction; they rush over here; they're kind of rushing around the landscape of the news".

Productivity

Oates writes in longhand,Birnbaum, Robert
"Personalities: Birnbaum v. Joyce Carol Oates"
The Morning News, February 3, 2005. Retrieved on October 30, 2008. working from "8 till 1 every day, then again for two or three hours in the evening."Dirda, Michael.
"The Wand of the Enchanter"
''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', 54.20, December 20, 2007. Retrieved on October 29, 2008. Her prolificacy has become one of her best-known attributes, although often discussed disparagingly. ''

'' wrote in 1989 that Oates's "name is synonymous with productivity", and in 2004, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' noted that "Nearly every review of an Oates book, it seems, begins with a list f her publication totals. In a journal entry written in the 1970s, Oates sarcastically addressed her critics, writing, "So many books! so many! Obviously JCO has a full career behind her, if one chooses to look at it that way; many more titles and she might as well... what?... give up all hopes for a 'reputation'? ��but I work hard, and long, and as the hours roll by I seem to create more than I anticipate; more, certainly, than the literary world allows for a 'serious' writer. Yet I have more stories to tell, and more novels ��". In ''

'' in 2007,

Michael Dirda Michael Dirda (born 1948) is a book critic for the '' Washington Post''. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Career Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda took an M.A. in 1974 ...

suggested that disparaging criticism of Oates "derives from reviewer's angst: How does one judge a new book by Oates when one is not familiar with most of the backlist? Where does one start?" Several publications have published lists of what they deem the best Joyce Carol Oates books, designed to help introduce readers to the author's daunting body of work. In a 2003 article entitled "Joyce Carol Oates for dummies", ''

The Rocky Mountain News The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...

'' recommended starting with her early short stories and the novels '' A Garden of Earthly Delights'' (1967), ''

'' (1969), ''

Wonderland Wonderland may refer to: Places Municipalities * Wonderland, California, a ghost town in Plumas County * Wonderland, Ohio, a ghost town in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Roads, streets, and trails * Wonderland Avenue, a roadway in Laurel Canyon, Los A ...

'' (1971), '' Black Water'' (1992), and '' Blonde'' (2000). In 2006, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' listed ''

'', '' On Boxing'' (in collaboration with photographer

John Ranard John Ranard (February 7, 1952 – May 14, 2008) was a social documentary photographer who won critical acclaim for his gritty, multi-layered photographs of Louisville, Kentucky's social classes, the world of boxing, Russia during the period of ...

) (1987), ''Black Water'', and '' High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006'' (2006) as "The Pick of Joyce Carol Oates".Freeman, John
"Joyce Carol Oates, up close and personal"
''

'', August 11, 2007. Retrieved on October 28, 2008. In 2007, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' listed its Oates favorites as ''Wonderland'', ''Black Water'', ''Blonde'', '' I'll Take You There'' (2002), and '' The Falls'' (2004). In 2003, Oates herself said that she thinks she will be remembered for, and would most want a first-time Oates reader to read, ''them'' and ''Blonde'', although she "could as easily have chosen a number of titles."

Bibliography

Oates's extensive bibliography contains poetry, plays, criticism, short stories, eleven novellas, and sixty novels, including ''Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart;'' ''Black Water;'' ''Mudwoman;'' ''Carthage;'' ''The Man Without a Shadow;'' and ''A Book of American Martyrs.'' She has published several novels under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Awards and honors

Winner

* 1955–1956: Scholastic Art & Writing Award * 1967: O. Henry Award – "In the Region of Ice""Past Winners List" (O)
''The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' (website). Random House. Retrieved April 14, 2012. (''The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is a book series published annually. Its website provides more information about the awards.) * 1968: M. L. Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters – ''A Garden of Earthly Delights'' * 1970:

– ''

''"National Book Awards – 1970"
National Book Foundation (NBF). Retrieved April 13, 2012.
(With acceptance speech by Oates and essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) * 1973: O. Henry Award – "The Dead" * 1988:

St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhat ...

from the Saint Louis University Library Associates * 1990:

Rea Award for the Short Story The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living American or Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction. The Award The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea, who was engaged in t ...

* 1996:

Bram Stoker Award for Novel The Bram Stoker Award for Novel is an award presented by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in horror writing for novels. Winners and nominees The following are the winners and nominees. Finalists (nominees) are lis ...

– ''Zombie'' * 1996: PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story * 1997: Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement * 2002: Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award * 2003
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement
('' The Kenyon Review'') * 2005:

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written ...

Etranger – '' The Falls'' * 2006: Chicago Tribune Literary Prize (''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'') * 2006: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters,

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

* 2007: Humanist of the Year, American Humanist Association * 2009: Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement, NBCC"Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award"
NBCC. Retrieved April 14, 2012. * 2010:

* 2010: Fernanda Pivano Award * 2011: Honorary Doctor of Arts,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

* 2011:

World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

– ''Fossil-Figures'' * 2011: Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection – ''The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares'' * 2012: Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement,

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering ...

* 2012: Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement * 2012: Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection – ''Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories'' * 2019:

, Lifetime Achievement * 2020: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, work as a message of modern humanism

Finalist

* 1970: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''The Wheel of Love and Other Stories'' * 1993: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Black Water''"Fiction"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved April 14, 2012. * 1995: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''What I Lived For'' * 2001: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Blonde'' * 2015: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories''

Nominated

* 1963: O. Henry Award – Special Award for Continuing Achievement (1970), five Second Prize (1964 to 1989), two First Prize (above) among 29 nominations * 1968: National Book Award for Fiction – ''A Garden of Earthly Delights''"National Book Awards – 1968"
NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011. * 1969: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Expensive People''"National Book Awards – 1969"
NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011. * 1972: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Wonderland''"National Book Awards – 1972"
NBF. Retrieved April 14, 2012. * 1990: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart''"National Book Awards – 1990"
NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011. * 1992: National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction – ''Black Water''"All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists"
(multiple pages). National Book Critics Circle (NBCC). Retrieved April 14, 2012. * 1995: PEN/Faulkner Award – ''What I Lived For'' * 2000: National Book Award – ''Blonde''"National Book Awards – 2000"
NBF. Retrieved April 14, 2014. * 2007: National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction – ''The Gravedigger's Daughter'' * 2007: National Book Critics Circle Award, Memoir/Autobiography – ''The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973–1982'' * 2013: Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for ''Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories''

Personal life

Oates met Raymond J. Smith, a fellow graduate student, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and they married in 1961. Smith became a professor of 18th-century literature and, later, an editor and publisher. Oates described the partnership as "a marriage of like minds..." and "a very collaborative and imaginative marriage". Smith died of complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

on February 18, 2008, and the death affected Oates profoundly. In April 2008, Oates wrote to an interviewer, "Since my husband's unexpected death, I really have very little energy ..My marriagemy love for my husbandseems to have come first in my life, rather than my writing. Set beside his death, the future of my writing scarcely interests me at the moment." After six months of near suicidal grieving for Smith, Oates met Charles Gross, a professor in the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Institute at Princeton, at a dinner party at her home. In early 2009, Oates and Gross were married. On April 13, 2019, Oates announced via Twitter that Gross had died at the age of 83. As a diarist, Oates began keeping a detailed journal in 1973, documenting her personal and literary life; it eventually grew to "more than 4,000 single-spaced typewritten pages". In 2008, Oates said she had "moved away from keeping a formal journal" and instead preserved copies of her e-mails. As of 1999, Oates remained devoted to running, of which she has written, "Ideally, the runner who's a writer is running through the land- and cityscapes of her fiction, like a ghost in a real setting".Oates, Joyce Carol
"Writers on Writing: To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet"
''

'', July 18, 1999. Retrieved on October 30, 2008. While running, Oates mentally envisions scenes in her novels and works out structural problems in already-written drafts; she formulated the germ of her novel '' You Must Remember This'' (1987) while running, when she "glanced up and saw the ruins of a railroad bridge", which reminded her of "a mythical upstate New York city in the right place". Oates was a member of the board of trustees of the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowships to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional ...

from 1997 to 2016. She is an honorary member of the Simpson Literary Project, which annually awards the $50,000 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize to a mid-career writer. She has served as the Project's artist-in-residence several times.Kosman, Joshia (May 12, 2020
"Bay Area author and psychiatrist Daniel Mason wins $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

References

External links

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Patchwork
(Official Web Site)
Joyce Carol Oates Biography and Interview on American Academy of Achievement

The Glass Ark: A Joyce Carol Oates Bibliography

Ontario Review
*

Interview with the ''Oxonian Review'' in June 2010

Joyce Carol Oates Bookworm Interviews
(Audio) with Michael Silverblatt
Interview October 13, 2015 WNYC Leonard Lopate show

Biography at Narrative Magazine
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