Born: June 16, 1938, Lockport, New York, U.S.
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author, known for the descriptive violence in her portrayals of American life. Born in Lockport, New York, Oates was educated at Syracuse University, the University of Wisconsin, and Rice University. She taught at the University of Detroit from 1961 to 1967 and at the University of Windsor from 1967 to 1987. She was a writer-in-residence at Princeton University from 1978 to 1981 and became a professor of English there in 1987.
Oates’s first two volumes of short stories were By the North Gate (1963) and Upon the Sweeping Flood (1966). Her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, was published in 1964. Her novel Them (1969), the third book in a trilogy that also included A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967) and Expensive People (1968), won the National Book Award in 1970. Oates wrote in many genres, but most of her books have strong elements of naturalism, a literary style emphasizing an objective presentation of life. Gothic elements, emphasizing the mysterious and horrifying aspects of life, also appear frequently in Oates’s writing. For example, violence, often male and sexual, consistently plays a prominent role in the life of her characters. Oates’s many other works include Bellefleur (1980), You Must Remember This (1988), Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990), Black Water (1992), Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993), What I Lived For (1994), Zombie (1995), George Bellows: American Artist (1995), Will You Always Love Me? (1996), and Man Crazy (1997).
Shopping Cart
