Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over 40 novels, as well as a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, and the National Humanities Medal. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), Blonde (2000), and short story collections The Wheel of Love and Other Stories (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Oates has taught at Princeton University since 1978 and is currently the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing.
Early life
Literary career
Oates was born in Lockport, New York. She is the eldest of three children of Carolina (née Bush), a homemaker of Hungarian descent, and Frederic James Oates, a tool and die designer. She was raised Catholic but is now atheist. Her brother, Fred Jr., was born in 1943, and her sister, Lynn Ann, who is severely autistic, was born in 1956. 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". 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 heritage; Oates eventually drew on aspects of her grandmother's life in writing the novel The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007).
"If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing, because you have that space."
"Love commingled with hate is more powerful than love. Or hate."
"The great menace to the life of an industry is industrial self-complacency."
"We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once it's gone - its value is incontestable"
"If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?"
"When poets write about food it is usually celebratory. Food as the thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful preparation of meals, the serving of meals, meals communally shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane."
"Nothing is accidental in the universe -- this is one of my Laws of Physics -- except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity."
"When people say there is too much violence in [my books], what they are saying is there is too much reality in life."
"The worst cynicism: a belief in luck"
"Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind."
"The third man in the ring makes boxing possible."
... trial.” Another chimed in, “We’re really pretending this is the villain in a Christopher Nolan film, huh?”JoyceCarol Oates, never one to miss a cultural flashpoint, weighed in with her usual flair.
“Lmao this is such performative shit ... You would think he bombed a hospital,” one user mused.— NathanJRobinson (@NathanJRobinson) — mynameprada (@mynameprada) Renowned author JoyceCarol Oates added her take ... .
Sign up ... On Dec ... The author JoyceCarol Oates captured the essence of the reactions to Thompson’s death when she said, “The outpouring of negativity ‘is better described as cries from the heart of a deeply wounded & betrayed country.’” ... ....
Even JoyceCarol Oates, the accomplished novelist and hardly a radical, offered her own lame excuse ... A "single act of violence" resulting in "just one" death? Memo to Oates.
The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, in New York this week has sent shockwaves across the United States... Or maybe it's what they really think ... The paper also quoted AuthorJoyceCarol Oates in another social media post ... Read more..
I initially cribbed the idea for that song's lyrics from the JoyceCarol Oates short story, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" It follows a narrative of a very dangerous, predatory man ...
I initially cribbed the idea for that song's lyrics from the JoyceCarol Oates short story, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" It follows a narrative of a very dangerous, predatory man in the process of stalking and kidnapping somebody ... ....
Photo-Illustration. Maanvi Kapur ... Still ... I am always looking for ways to be anyone besides myself, so this morning I’m having oatmeal, that most celebrated invention of JoyceCarol Oates, topped with almond slivers, four chopped dates, and maple syrup.
