Joyce Carol Oates facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joyce Carol Oates
Oates in 2014
Born	(1938-06-16) June 16, 1938 (age 86) Lockport, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist short story writer playwright poet literary critic professor editor
Education	Syracuse University (BA) University of Wisconsin, Madison (MA) Rice University
Period	1963–present
Notable works	A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967); Them (1969); The Wheel of Love (1970); Wonderland (1971); Black Water (1992); Blonde (2000); High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006 (2006)
Notable awards	O. Henry Award (1967) National Book Award (1970) O. Henry Award (1973) National Humanities Medal (2010) Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement (2012) Jerusalem Prize (2019)
Spouses	Raymond J. Smith ​ ​ (m. 1961; died 2008)​ Charles G. Gross ​ ​ (m. 2009; died 2019)​

Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is a famous American writer. She started publishing books in 1963. Since then, she has written many novels, plays, short stories, poems, and non-fiction books.

Some of her novels, like Black Water (1992) and Blonde (2000), were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. This is a very important award for writers. She also won the National Book Award for her novel Them (1969). She has received many other awards for her amazing writing.

Oates taught at Princeton University for many years, from 1978 to 2014. She was a professor of humanities. She also taught at the University of California, Berkeley and now teaches at Rutgers University.

Early Life and Education

Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, New York. She was the oldest of three children. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father designed tools. She grew up on her parents' farm.

She lived in a working-class farming area called Millersport, New York. She said her family was "happy, close-knit, and ordinary." But she also described her childhood as "a daily scramble for existence," meaning life wasn't always easy. Her grandmother, Blanche Woodside, lived with them and was very close to Joyce.

Joyce went to the same one-room school her mother had attended. She loved reading from a young age. Her grandmother gave her Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which Joyce called "the great treasure of my childhood." When she was a teenager, she read books by famous writers like Charlotte Brontë and Ernest Hemingway.

Oates started writing when she was 14, after her grandmother gave her a typewriter. She later went to bigger schools and graduated from Williamsville South High School in 1956. She worked for her high school newspaper. She was the first person in her family to finish high school. She even won an award for her writing as a teen.

University Studies

Joyce Carol Oates received a scholarship to attend Syracuse University. She found Syracuse to be a very exciting place to learn. She practiced writing by creating many novels, even though she would often throw them away when finished.

During this time, she read works by writers like Franz Kafka and Flannery O'Connor. When she was 19, she won a college short story contest. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1960 with top honors in English. She then earned her master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1961. She later left a Ph.D. program to become a full-time writer.

Her first book, a collection of short stories called By the North Gate, was published in 1963.

Writing Career

Joyce Carol Oates' first novel, With Shuddering Fall, was published in 1964 when she was 26. In 1966, she wrote a famous short story called "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" This story was inspired by a Bob Dylan song. It has been included in many collections and even made into a movie called Smooth Talk in 1985. Oates has said this story is one of her most well-known works.

Oates in 1972, while in Canada

Another early short story, "In a Region of Ice," won her first O. Henry Award. Her novel A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967) was the first of four novels that were finalists for the National Book Award. The third novel in this series, them (1969), won the 1970 National Book Award for Fiction. This book is set in Detroit from the 1930s to the 1960s and talks about social issues and challenges.

Since then, Oates has published about two books every year. Her stories often explore themes like life in the countryside, differences between social classes, and the experiences of girls and young women. Sometimes, her stories even include elements of the "fantastic" or supernatural.

In the 1980s, Oates started writing stories in the Gothic and horror styles. She was influenced by writers like Kafka and James Joyce. In 1996, she published We Were the Mulvaneys, a novel about a family facing difficulties. This book became a best-seller after being chosen by Oprah's Book Club. It was also made into a TV movie. In the 1990s and early 2000s, she wrote several suspense novels using different names, like Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Many people have thought Joyce Carol Oates might win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has written so many books that some critics wonder how to keep up! But Oates says she works hard and has many more stories to tell.

In 1998, she received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature.

Ontario Review Magazine

In 1974, Oates started a literary magazine called The Ontario Review in Canada with her husband, Raymond J. Smith. He was the editor, and she was the associate editor. Their goal was to connect writers and artists from the United States and Canada.

In 1980, Oates and Smith also started Ontario Review Books, which is a publishing company. Oates said that she and her husband had "a marriage of like minds" because they both loved literature and talked about books all the time.

Teaching Career

Oates taught in Texas for a year before moving to Detroit in 1962. There, she started teaching at the University of Detroit. Because of events like the Vietnam War and the 1967 Detroit riots, she moved to Canada in 1968 and taught at the University of Windsor. In 1978, she moved to Princeton, New Jersey, and began teaching at Princeton University.

She had a big impact on her students. For example, Jonathan Safran Foer, a famous novelist, took a writing class with Oates at Princeton. He said she was the first person who made him think he should try to write seriously. Oates helped him with his senior project, which later became his successful novel Everything Is Illuminated.

Oates retired from teaching at Princeton in 2014. She has continued to teach creative writing at UC Berkeley since 2016.

Her Views

Religion

Joyce Carol Oates was raised Catholic. However, as of 2007, she identifies as an atheist, meaning she does not believe in God. She sees religion as a way people express deep, mysterious feelings and ideas.

Politics

Oates considers herself a liberal. She supports gun control. She has also openly shared her opinions about former US President Donald Trump. She believed that cultural places like museums and theaters should stay open, even during protests, because they are important for artists and people who enjoy art.

How Much She Writes

Joyce Carol Oates in 2004

Oates writes by hand, usually from 8 AM to 1 PM every day, and then for a few more hours in the evening. She is known for writing a lot of books. Sometimes, people talk about how much she writes, and it can be seen as both impressive and a bit overwhelming.

In the 1970s, Oates wrote in her journal about this. She said she works hard and creates more than people expect from a "serious" writer. But she added that she has "more stories to tell, and more novels."

Many publications have made lists of her best books to help new readers get started. Some popular choices include her early short stories and novels like A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967), them (1969), Wonderland (1971), Black Water (1992), and Blonde (2000). Oates herself has said she thinks she will be remembered for them and Blonde.

Personal Life

Oates in 2013

Joyce Carol Oates met Raymond J. Smith, another student, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They got married in 1961. Raymond became a professor and also an editor and publisher. Oates said their marriage was a "marriage of like minds" because they both loved literature and worked together.

Raymond died in 2008 from complications of pneumonia. His death deeply affected Oates. She wrote that her love for her husband seemed to come first in her life, even before her writing.

About six months after Raymond's death, Oates met Charles Gross, a professor at Princeton. They married in 2009. Charles Gross passed away in 2019.

Oates started keeping a detailed journal in 1973, writing about her life and her writing. It grew to be over 4,000 pages long! Later, she started saving copies of her emails instead of keeping a formal journal.

She also loves running. She has said that when she runs, she imagines scenes for her novels and solves problems in her stories. She even got the idea for her novel You Must Remember This (1987) while running.

Awards and Honors

Joyce Carol Oates has received many awards and honors throughout her career for her contributions to literature.

Finalist

Nominated

See also

In Spanish: Joyce Carol Oates para niños