Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist, born on June 16, 1938, in Lockport, New York. She is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and versatile authors in contemporary literature, having written over 40 novels, numerous short stories, essays, and plays. Oates is particularly known for her exploration of themes such as identity, social class, violence, and psychological trauma.

She has received many prestigious awards throughout her career, including the National Book Award for her novel them in 1970, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize multiple times. Oates’ works often examine the darker sides of human nature and the complexities of American society, delving into characters’ personal struggles and societal issues.

Some of her most notable works include We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde (a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe’s life), The Falls, and The Gravedigger’s Daughter. Her writing is known for its depth, emotional intensity, and complex characters.

Oates has also been a long-time teacher of creative writing, most notably at Princeton University. Her influence on contemporary American literature is immense, and her works continue to be read and studied widely.

Articles by the author

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?

Joyce Carol Oates

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

Joyce Carol Oates

For some reason, voters can be brainwashed, and they vote sometimes against their own best interests, let alone voting against the interests of people who need them, like people who are disenfranchised and people who are poor and so forth.

Joyce Carol Oates

Primarily, 'Black Girl/White Girl' is the story of two very different, yet somehow 'fated' girls; for Genna, her 'friendship' with Minette is the most haunting of her life, though it is one-sided and ends in tragedy.

Joyce Carol Oates

I should say, one of the things about being a widow or a widower, you really, really need a sense of humor, because everything's going to fall apart.

Joyce Carol Oates

Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind.

Joyce Carol Oates

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

Joyce Carol Oates

To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it.

Joyce Carol Oates

Boxing has become America's tragic theater.

Joyce Carol Oates

I was brought up to be sympathetic toward others.

Joyce Carol Oates

Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light.

Joyce Carol Oates

In love there are two things - bodies and words.

Joyce Carol Oates

The relationship between parents and children, but especially between mothers and daughters, is tremendously powerful, scarcely to be comprehended in any rational way.

Joyce Carol Oates