Editing Joyce Carol Oates

{{Short description|American author (born 1938)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Joyce Carol Oates
| image = Joyce carol oates 2014.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1938|06|16}}
| birth_place = [[Lockport (city), New York|Lockport, New York]], U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* [[Novelist]]
* [[short story writer]]
* [[playwright]]
* [[poet]]
* [[literary critic]]
* [[professor]]
* [[editor]]
}}
| education = [[Syracuse University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin, Madison]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])<br />[[Rice University]]
| period = 1963–present
| awards = [[O. Henry Award]] (1967)<br />[[National Book Award]] (1970)<br />O. Henry Award (1973)<br />[[National Humanities Medal]] (2010)<br />[[Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement]] (2012)<br />[[Jerusalem Prize]] (2019)
| notable_works = ''[[A Garden of Earthly Delights]]'' (1967); ''[[them (novel)|Them]]'' (1969); [[The Wheel of Love and Other Stories|''The Wheel of Love'']] (1970); ''[[Wonderland (novel)|Wonderland]]'' (1971); ''[[Black Water (novella)|Black Water]]'' (1992); ''[[Blonde (novel)|Blonde]]'' (2000); ''[[High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006]]'' (2006)
| spouses = {{unbulleted list | {{marriage|[[Raymond J. Smith]]|1961|February 18, 2008|end=d.}} | {{marriage|[[Charles G. Gross]]|2009|April 13, 2019|end=d.}}}}
| caption = Oates in 2014
}}
'''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 nonfiction. Her novels ''[[Black Water (novella)|Black Water]]'' (1992), ''What I Lived For'' (1994), and ''[[Blonde (novel)|Blonde]]'' (2000), and her short story collections [[The Wheel of Love and Other Stories|''The Wheel of Love'']] (1970) and ''Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories'' (2014) were each finalists for the [[Pulitzer Prize]]. She has won many awards for her writing, including the [[National Book Award]],<ref name=nba1970 /> for her novel ''[[Them (novel)|Them]]'' (1969), two [[O. Henry Awards]], the [[National Humanities Medal]], and the [[Jerusalem Prize]] (2019).

Oates taught at [[Princeton University]] from 1978 to 2014, and is the [[Roger S. Berlind]] '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~visarts/cwr/faculty/jcoates.html |title=The Program in Creative Writing |publisher=Princeton.edu |access-date=June 14, 2011}}</ref> From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/443|title=Berkeley English Joyce Carol Oates Courses|website=english.berkeley.edu|access-date=2019-12-14|archive-date=December 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214021002/https://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/443|url-status=dead}}</ref> She now teaches at [[Rutgers University–New Brunswick|Rutgers University, New Brunswick]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Joyce Carol Oates will Teach Fiction Workshop at Rutgers during Spring Semester |url=https://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/news/newsroom/faculty/3086-joyce-carol-oates-will-teach-fiction-workshop-at-rutgers-during-spring-semester |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=sas.rutgers.edu |archive-date=December 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228181247/https://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/news/newsroom/faculty/3086-joyce-carol-oates-will-teach-fiction-workshop-at-rutgers-during-spring-semester |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Oates was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Joyce+Carol+Oates&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-02-18|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Oates was born in [[Lockport (city), New York|Lockport, New York]], the eldest of three children of Carolina (''née'' Bush), a homemaker of Hungarian descent,<ref name="aida"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=Joyce Carol Oates, American author|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joyce-Carol-Oates|access-date=2021-01-03|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> and Frederic James Oates, a [[tool and die]] designer.<ref name="aida">{{cite news|author=Edemariam, Aida|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview14|title=The new Monroe doctrine|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 4, 2004}}</ref> 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 has [[autism]]<ref name="aida"/> and is institutionalized, and Oates has not seen her since 1971.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oates |first1=Joyce Carol |title=The Lost Landscape: A Writer's Coming of Age |publication-date=2015 |publisher=Ecco |chapter=The Lost Sister: An Elegy |date=September 8, 2015 |pages=201–220 |quote="I have not seen my afflicted sister since 1971, when she was fifteen years old." |quote-page=220 |isbn=978-0-06-240867-9}}</ref> Oates grew up in the working-class farming community of [[Millersport, New York]].<ref name="ew"/> She characterized hers as "a happy, close-knit and unextraordinary family for our time, place and economic status",<ref name="aida"/> but her childhood as "a daily scramble for existence".<ref name="echo">{{cite web|url=http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/horroronline/oates.html|title=Author Focus: Joyce Carol Oates|publisher=Darkecho.com|access-date=June 14, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610030614/http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/horroronline/oates.html|archive-date=June 10, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Her widowed paternal grandmother, Blanche Woodside (née Morningstar), lived with the family and was "very close" to Joyce.<ref name="ew">{{cite magazine|author=Reese, Jennifer|url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20044839,00.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102175705/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20044839,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 2, 2013|title=Joyce Carol Oates gets personal|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=July 13, 2007}}</ref> After Blanche's death, Joyce learned that Blanche's father had killed himself. Oates eventually drew on aspects of her grandmother's life in writing the novel ''[[The Gravedigger's Daughter]]'' (2007).<ref name="ew"/>

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. At age fourteen, Oates's paternal grandmother Blanche survived an attempted murder-suicide at the hands of her own father. He did kill himself.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oates |first1=Joyce Carol |title=The Lost Landscape: A Writer's Coming of Age |publication-date=2015 |publisher=Ecco |chapter=After Black Rock |date=September 8, 2015 |pages=61–67 |isbn=978-0-06-240867-9}}</ref> When Oates was a child, her next-door neighbor pleaded guilty to charges of arson and attempted murder of his family, and was sentenced to a prison term at [[Attica Correctional Facility]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oates |first1=Joyce Carol |title=The Lost Landscape: A Writer's Coming of Age |publication-date=2015 |publisher=Ecco |chapter=‘They All Just Went Away’ |date=September 8, 2015 |pages=85–108 |isbn=978-0-06-240867-9}}</ref>

Oates attended the same [[one-room school]] her mother had attended as a child.<ref name="aida"/> She became interested in reading at an early age and remembers Blanche's gift of [[Lewis Carroll]]'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!"<ref>{{cite book|author=Oates, Joyce Carol|date=2003|title=The Faith of a Writer|url=https://archive.org/details/faithofwriterl00oate|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/faithofwriterl00oate/page/14 14]|publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=9780060565534}}</ref> In her early teens, she read the work of [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[Emily Brontë]], [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]], [[William Faulkner]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], and [[Henry David Thoreau]], writers whose "influences remain very deep".<ref name="milazzo">{{cite book|editor=Milazzo, Lee|title=Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates|url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00oate|url-access=registration|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|date=1989|page=[https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00oate/page/143 143]}}</ref>

Oates began writing at the age of 14, when Blanche gave her a typewriter.<ref name="ew"/> Oates later transferred to several bigger, suburban schools<ref name="aida"/> and graduated from [[Williamsville South High School]] in 1956, where she worked for her high school newspaper.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kwiatkowski|first=Jane|date=29 September 1999|title=The Williamsville that Joyce Carol Oates Knew|url=https://buffalonews.com/1999/09/29/the-williamsville-that-joyce-carol-oates-knew/|work=The Buffalo News|location=Buffalo}}</ref> She was the first in her family to complete high school.<ref name="aida"/>

As a teen, Oates also received early recognition for her writing by winning a [[Scholastic Art and Writing Awards|Scholastic Art and Writing Award]].<ref>[http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/america-s-most-creative-teens-named-national-2016-scholastic-art-writing-awards-recipi AMERICA'S MOST CREATIVE TEENS NAMED AS NATIONAL 2016 SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS RECIPIENTS], Scholastic Inc., Newsroom; accessed May 22, 2018.</ref>

==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".<ref name="parisseventy">{{cite news|author=Phillips, Robert|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3441/the-art-of-fiction-no-72-joyce-carol-oates|title='The Art of Fiction No. 72: Joyce Carol Oates' (interview)|work=[[The Paris Review]]|volume=74|date=Fall–Winter 1978}}</ref> It was at this point that Oates began reading the work of [[Franz Kafka]], [[D. H. Lawrence]], [[Thomas Mann]], and [[Flannery O'Connor]], and she noted, "these influences are still quite strong, pervasive".<ref name="milazzo"/> At the age of 19, she won the "college short story" contest sponsored by ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]''. Oates was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]] as a junior<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/PhiBetaKappa/status/1128747148206538753|title=We're excited to see so many #PBKMembers on this list, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David McCullough, Barbara Kingsolver, @JoyceCarolOates, Julia Álvarez, @HenryLouisGates, and @Penn President Amy Gutmann!https://twitter.com/librarycongress/status/1128344374251749376 …|first=Phi Beta|last=Kappa|date=May 15, 2019}}</ref> and graduated [[valedictorian]] from [[Syracuse University]] with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] ''[[summa cum laude]]'' in English in 1960,<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Robson |first1=Leo |title=The Unruly Genius of Joyce Carol Oates |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/the-unruly-genius-of-joyce-carol-oates |access-date=October 6, 2020 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=June 29, 2020 |language=en-us}}</ref> and received her M.A. from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in 1961. She was a Ph.D. student at [[Rice University]] but left to become a full-time writer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://petrucz.wordpress.com/joyce-carol-oates|title=Joyce Carol Oates, Where are you going, Where have you been?|date=April 27, 2010|access-date=May 22, 2018}}</ref>

[[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.<ref>{{cite news|author=Woo, Elaine|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-08-mn-7895-story.html|title=Obituaries: Evelyn Shrifte, Longtime Head of Vanguard Press|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=September 8, 1999}}</ref>

==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]] and written after listening to his song "[[It's All Over Now, Baby Blue]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Dedication Of Joyce Carol Oates Short Story To Dylan|url=http://www.edlis.org/twice/threads/joyce_carol_oates_dedication.html|access-date=May 22, 2018}}</ref> The story is loosely based on the serial killer [[Charles Schmid]], also known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson".<ref>{{cite web|title=Charles Schmid, The Pied Piper of Tucson|work=CourtTV Crime Library|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/schmid/oates_9.html|access-date=May 22, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210034246/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/schmid/oates_9.html|archive-date=February 10, 2015}}</ref> It has been anthologized many times and [[film adaptation|adapted as a 1985 film]], ''[[Smooth Talk]]'', which starred [[Laura Dern]]. In 2008, Oates said that of all her published work, she is most noted for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"<ref name="tucky">Truman, Cheryl. [http://www.kentucky.com/692/story/515390.html "Author Joyce Carol Oates is always at her finest"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001013304/http://www.kentucky.com/692/story/515390.html|date=October 1, 2009}} (reprint), ''[[Lexington Herald-Leader]]'', 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref>
[[File:Joyce Carol Oates 1972 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Oates in 1972, while in Canada]]
Another early short story, "In a Region of Ice" (''The Atlantic Monthly'', August 1966<ref name=ohenrywinners/>), 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 Award]]s.<ref name=ohenrywinners/>

Oates’s 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, ''[[them (novel)|them]]'' (1969), won the 1970 [[National Book Award for Fiction]].<ref name=nba1970/> 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 "[[Fantastique|fantastic]]".<ref>Kort, Carol (2000), ''A Biographical Dictionary A to Z of American Women Writers'', pp. 158 (Facts on File).</ref> 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?"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Prodger |first1=Michael |title=Mired in violence |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8ed6a99e-6483-11e1-b30e-00144feabdc0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/8ed6a99e-6483-11e1-b30e-00144feabdc0 |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |access-date=6 October 2020 |work=Financial Times |date=March 9, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Why Is Your Writing So Violent? |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/oates-violent.html?_r=1_ |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

In 1990, Oates discussed her novel, ''[[Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart]]'',<!-- no pipe; our front cover image shows lowercase 'and' --> which also deals with themes of racial tension, and described "the experience of writing [it]" as "so intense it seemed almost electric".<ref>Spencer, Stuart http://bombsite.com/issues/31/articles/1310 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920212008/http://bombsite.com/issues/31/articles/1310 |date=September 20, 2013 }}, ''[[BOMB Magazine]]'' Spring 1990. Retrieved July 19, 2011.</ref> She is a fan of [[poet]] and novelist [[Sylvia Plath]], describing Plath's sole novel ''[[The Bell Jar]]'' 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.{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}} 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]].<ref name="echo"/>

In 1996, Oates published ''[[We Were the Mulvaneys]]'', a novel following the disintegration of an American family, which became a best-seller after being selected by [[Oprah's Book Club]] in 2001.<ref name="tucky" /> ''[[We Were the Mulvaneys]]'' 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.<ref name="forswears">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/10/books/a-sad-joyce-carol-oates-forswears-pseudonyms.html |title=A Sad Joyce Carol Oates Forswears Pseudonyms |newspaper=NYTimes.com |date=February 10, 1987 |access-date=April 19, 2016}}</ref>

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.<ref name="nybooks" /> 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".<ref name="The Madness of Scholarship">{{Cite news|url=https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/03/10/the-madness-of-scholarship-in-the-joyce-carol-oates-archive|publisher=Kennesaw: The Magazine of Kennesaw State College|title=The Madness of Scholarship|year=1993|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002033321/https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/03/10/the-madness-of-scholarship-in-the-joyce-carol-oates-archive|archive-date=October 2, 2016}}</ref>

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".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/oates-wheel.html Featured Author: Joyce Carol Oates. With Reviews and Articles], nytimes.com, September 21, 1997.</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/books/11oates.html|title=Criticism for Joyce Carol Oates|first=Julie|last=Bosman|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 10, 2006}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.fscottfestival.org/ourhistory |website=F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival |access-date=6 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

===''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.<ref name="ew"/> Smith served as editor of this venture, and Oates served as associate editor.<ref name="obit">[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00EFDA1F3CF934A15751C0A96E9C8B63&scp=2&sq=%22raymond%20j.%20smith%22&st=cse "Raymond Smith, 77, Founder and Editor of Literary Journal"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 27, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> 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."<ref>"Ontario Review Press". Celestial Timepiece – The Joyce Carol Oates Home Page. University of San Francisco. Retrieved April 4, 2014.</ref> In 1978, [[Sylvester & Orphanos]] published ''[[A Sentimental Education (short stories)|A Sentimental Education]]'', a collection of short stories.<ref>Luckenbill, Dan (1990). Sylvester & Orphanos: catalog of an exhibit, October–December 1990. UCLA. Retrieved March 13, 2018.</ref>

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&nbsp;...".<ref name="aida"/>

===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 1967 [[12th Street riot|Detroit race riots]], and a job offer, Oates moved across [[Detroit River|the river]] into Canada in 1968 with her husband, to a teaching position at the [[University of Windsor]] in [[Windsor, Ontario|Ontario]].<ref name="aida"/> In 1978, she moved to [[Princeton, New Jersey]], and began teaching at [[Princeton University]].

Among others, Oates influenced [[Jonathan Safran Foer]], who took an introductory writing course with Oates in 1995 as a Princeton undergraduate.<ref name="nash">Nash, Margo. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E0DC1438F932A35751C1A9649C8B63 "Learning to Write From the Masters"], ''The New York Times'', December 1, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> Foer recalled later that Oates took an interest in his writing and his "most important of writerly qualities, energy",<ref name="ident">Birnbaum, Robert. [http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum108.php "Jonathan Safran Foer: Author of Everything is Illuminated talks with Robert Birnbaum"], IdentityTheory.com, May 26, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> 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."<ref name="ident"/> 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).<ref name="nash"/>

Oates retired from teaching at Princeton in 2014 and was honored at a retirement party in November of that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2013/03/06/pages/4813|title=Acclaimed author Oates to retire from University|date=March 6, 2013|author=Altmann, Jennifer|publisher=Princeton Alumni Weekly|access-date=May 14, 2013|archive-date=September 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927112948/http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2013/03/06/pages/4813/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/09/joyce-carol-oates-honored-at-retirement-gala|title=Joyce Carol Oates honored at retirement gala|last=Showalter|first=Elaine|date=November 9, 2014|newspaper=The Washington Post|issn=0190-8286|access-date=August 30, 2016}}</ref>

Oates has taught creative short fiction at UC Berkeley since 2016 and offers her course in spring semesters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/443/show_courses|title=Berkeley English Joyce Carol Oates Courses|website=english.berkeley.edu|access-date=2019-12-14|archive-date=December 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214021000/https://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/443/show_courses|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Views==
===Religion===
Oates was raised [[Catholic]], but as of 2007 she identified as an [[atheist]].<ref name="humanist">{{cite journal|author=Oates, Joyce Carol|url=http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/JoyceCarolOates.html|title=Humanism and Its Discontents|journal=The Humanist|date=November–December 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121124065507/http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/JoyceCarolOates.html|archive-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> In an interview with ''[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]'' 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."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/interview-joyce-carol-oates|title=An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates|first=Linda|last= Kuehl |website=CommonwealMagazine.org|date=December 5, 1969 |access-date=May 13, 2018}}</ref>

===Politics===
Oates self-identifies as a [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]], and supports [[gun control]].<ref name="salon.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2014/02/20/joyce_carol_oates_on_twitter_i_don%E2%80%99t_really_say_anything_that_i_don%E2%80%99t_mean|title=Joyce Carol Oates: Twitter suffers from 'lynch mob mentality'|first=Daniel |last=D'Addario|date=February 20, 2014|work=salon.com|access-date=May 13, 2018}}</ref> She was a vocal critic of US President [[Donald Trump]] and his policies during his first term, both in public and on [[Twitter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Joyce-Carol-Oates-Art-Spiegelman-among-50-who-12486360.php|title=Joyce Carol Oates, Art Spiegelman among 50 who address Trump's America|first=Brandon |last=Yu|date=January 10, 2018|access-date=May 13, 2018|publisher=sfgate.com}}</ref>

Oates opposed the shuttering of cultural institutions on Trump's first inauguration day as a protest against the President, stating that this "would only hurt artists. Rather, cultural institutions should be sanctuaries for those repelled by the inauguration."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/arts/joyce-carol-oates-opposes-cultural-shutdown-on-inauguration-day-igniting-debate.html|title=Joyce Carol Oates Opposes Cultural Shutdown on Inauguration Day, Igniting Debate|first=Sopan|last=Deb|date=January 26, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

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."<ref name="ellethinkstrump">{{cite news |last1=Brickman |first1=Sophie |title=Joyce Carol Oates Thinks Trump Is a Red Herring |url=https://www.elle.com/culture/a25714052/the-elle-woman-joyce-carol-oates-january-2019/ |access-date=January 5, 2019 |work=ELLE |date=January 4, 2019}}</ref>

==Productivity==
[[File:Joyce Carol Oates 2004.jpg|thumb|Joyce Carol Oates in 2004]]
Oates writes in [[cursive|longhand]],<ref name="birnbaum">Birnbaum, Robert. [http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/birnbaum_v_joyce_carol_oates.php "Personalities: Birnbaum v. Joyce Carol Oates"], [[The Morning News (online magazine)|The Morning News]], February 3, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2008.</ref> working from "8 till 1 every day, then again for two or three hours in the evening."<ref name="nybooks">Dirda, Michael. "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20900 "The Wand of the Enchanter"], ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', '''54.20''', December 20, 2007. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> Her prolificacy has become one of her best-known attributes, although often discussed disparagingly.<ref name="nybooks" /> ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote in 1989 that Oates's "name is synonymous with productivity."<ref>Parini, Jay (July 30, 1989)[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4D71638F933A05754C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&&scp=5&sq=joyce%20carol%20oates%20prolific&st=cse "The more they write, the more they write"], ''The New York Times''. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> Martyn Bedford wrote in ''[[Literary Review]]'' that "perhaps she is a victim of her own productivity."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-04 |title=Martyn Bedford – The Beckoning Chasm |url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-beckoning-chasm |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Literary Review |language=en}}</ref> In 2004, ''[[The Guardian]]'' noted that, "Nearly every review of an Oates book, it seems, begins with a list [of her publication totals]".<ref name="aida" />

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 […] ".<ref>Johnson, Greg, ed. ''The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973–1982''. New York: Ecco, 2007, p. 331.{{ISBN?}}</ref> In ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' in 2007, [[Michael Dirda]] 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?"<ref name="nybooks"/>

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]]'' recommended starting with her early short stories and the novels ''[[A Garden of Earthly Delights]]'' (1967), ''[[them (novel)|them]]'' (1969), ''[[Wonderland (novel)|Wonderland]]'' (1971), ''[[Black Water (novella)|Black Water]]'' (1992), and ''[[Blonde (novel)|Blonde]]'' (2000).<ref>Davis, Duane. [https://archive.today/20120913013823/http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2003/jun/13/joyce-carol-oates-for-dummies/ "Joyce Carol Oates for dummies"], [https://archive.today/20120907212635/http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2003/jun/13/where-to-start/ "Where to start"], [https://archive.today/20120911181022/http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2003/jun/13/onto-the-novels/ "Onto the novels"] (series of articles), ''[[The Rocky Mountain News]]'', June 13, 2003. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> In 2006, ''[[The Times]]'' listed ''[[Them (novel)|them]]'', ''[[On Boxing]]'' (1987), ''Black Water'', and ''[[High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006]]'' (2006) as "The Pick of Joyce Carol Oates".<ref name="timesuk">Freeman, John. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080706054834/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article2234532.ece "Joyce Carol Oates, up close and personal"], ''[[The Times]]'', August 11, 2007. Retrieved October 28, 2008.</ref> In 2007, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' listed its Oates favorites as ''Wonderland'', ''Black Water'', ''Blonde'', ''[[I'll Take You There (novel)|I'll Take You There]]'' (2002), and ''The Falls'' (2004).<ref>[https://ew.com/article/2007/07/06/five-must-reads-joyce-carol-oates/ "Book News: Daily Oates Consumption"], ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'', July 6, 2007. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref> 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."<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42763-2003Oct17.html "Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', October 24, 2003. Retrieved October 29, 2008.</ref>

In a 2025 interview with ''[[The New Yorker]]'', the novelist [[Garth Risk Hallberg]] suggested that "a new [Oates] reader should begin with the collection ''High Lonesome.''" He also deemed the novels ''them'', ''I Lock My Door Upon Myself'' (1990), and ''Blonde'' "essential" Oates works.<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/books/book-currents/garth-risk-hallbergs-essential-joyce-carol-oates "Garth Risk Hallberg's Essential Joyce Carol Oates"], ''The New Yorker'', January 15, 2025. Retrieved January 16, 2025.</ref>

==Personal life==
[[File:Joyce Carol Oates 2013.jpg|thumb|Oates in 2013]]
Oates met [[Raymond J. Smith]], a fellow graduate student, at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], and they married in 1961.<ref name="ew" /> 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".<ref name="aida" /> Smith died of complications from [[pneumonia]] on February 18, 2008, and the death affected Oates profoundly.<ref name="obit" /> In April 2008, Oates wrote to an interviewer, "Since my husband's unexpected death, I really have very little energy [...] My marriage{{spnd}}my love for my husband{{spnd}}seems 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."<ref name="dispatch">{{cite journal | author = Smalldon, Jeffrey | date = April 6, 2008 | title = End of Story?: Joyce Carol Oates Takes Stock as She Approaches 70 | journal = [[The Columbus Dispatch]] | format = email interview | url = http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2008/04/06/oates_long.html?print=yes&sid=101 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130121035809/http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2008/04/06/oates_long.html?print=yes&sid=101 | url-status = dead | archive-date = January 21, 2013 | access-date = 14 September 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | author = Oates, Joyce Carol | date = December 13, 2010 | title = Personal History: A Widow's Story, The Last Week of a Long Marriage | magazine = [[The New Yorker]] | url = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/13/a-widows-story | access-date = 14 September 2016 }}</ref>

After six months of near suicidal grieving for Smith,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/19/widows-story-joyce-carol-oates-review,|title=Review by Janet Todd, 19 March 2011|website=[[TheGuardian.com]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://crossingtheborder.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/married/ |title=Married! |publisher=Crossingtheborder.wordpress.com |date=May 4, 2009 |access-date=June 14, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |title=A Widow's Story |year=2011 |publisher=Harper Collins |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-201553-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/widowsstory00ecco/page/414 414–415] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/widowsstory00ecco/page/414 }}</ref> On April 13, 2019, Oates announced via Twitter that Gross had died at the age of 83.<ref>{{cite tweet |user=JoyceCarolOates |number=1117207263301607424 |date=April 13, 2019 |title=Charlie Gross, February 29, 1936 – April 13, 2019. Brilliant, beautiful, beloved husband. }}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite news|last=Campbell|first= James|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/books/review/Campbell-t.html?scp=5&sq=%22joyce%20carol%20oates%22%20%22journals%22&st=cse |title=The Oates Diaries|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= October 7, 2007|access-date= October 30, 2008}}</ref> In 2008, Oates said she had "moved away from keeping a formal journal" and instead preserved copies of her e-mails.<ref name="dispatch" />

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."<ref name="running">Oates, Joyce Carol. [https://www.nytimes.com/library/books/071999oates-writing.html "Writers on Writing: To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 18, 1999. Retrieved October 30, 2008.</ref> 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".<ref name="running" />

Oates was a member of the board of trustees of the [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]] from 1997 to 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/trustees/joyce-carol-oates/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Joyce Carol Oates|website=www.gf.org|language=en-US|access-date=June 14, 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref name=chronicle>Kosman, Joshia (May 12, 2020) [https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/bay-area-author-and-psychiatrist-daniel-mason-wins-50000-joyce-carol-oates-prize "Bay Area author and psychiatrist Daniel Mason wins $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize"] ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Main|Joyce Carol Oates bibliography|Joyce Carol Oates short fiction bibliography}}

Oates's extensive bibliography contains poetry, plays, criticism, short stories, eleven novellas, and sixty novels, including ''Them'', ''Blonde'', ''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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Joyce Carol Oates |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joyce-Carol-Oates |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=14 January 2019}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

===Winner===
* 1955–1956: [[Scholastic Art & Writing Awards|Scholastic Art & Writing Award]]
* 1967: [[O. Henry Award]] – "In the Region of Ice"<ref name=ohenrywinners>[http://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/past.html#jump_o "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.)</ref>
* 1968: [[Macha Rosenthal|M. L. Rosenthal Award]], National Institute of Arts and Letters – ''A Garden of Earthly Delights''
* 1970: [[National Book Award for Fiction]] – ''[[them (novel)|them]]''<ref name=nba1970>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1970 "National Book Awards – 1970"]. [[National Book Foundation]] ('''NBF'''). Retrieved April 13, 2012.<br />(With acceptance speech by Oates and essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref>
* 1973: O. Henry Award – "The Dead"<ref name=ohenrywinners/>
* 1988: [[St. Louis Literary Award]] from the [[Saint Louis University]] Library Associates<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|title=Saint Louis Literary Award|publisher=Saint Louis University|website=www.slu.edu|access-date=July 26, 2016|archive-date=August 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |title=Recipients of the Saint Louis Literary Award |author=Saint Louis University Library Associates |access-date=July 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731082313/http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award |archive-date=July 31, 2016 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
* 1990: [[Rea Award for the Short Story]]
* 1990: [[Heideman Award]] for ''Tone Clusters''
* 1994: [[Bram Stoker Award]] Lifetime Achievement award
* 1994: [[International Horror Guild Award]], best Collection, for ''Angels and Visitations''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://horroraward.org/prevrec.html | title=:: Ihg :: International Horror Guild :: Ihg :: }}</ref>
* 1996: [[Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel]] – ''Zombie''
* 1996: [[PEN/Malamud Award]] for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story
* 1997: Golden Plate Award, [[American Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=   https://www.achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/}}</ref>
* 2002: [[Helmerich Award|Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award]]<ref>"People and Publishing: Awards", ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'', January 2003, p. 8.</ref>
* 2003: Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service for Literature
* 2003: [https://www.kenyonreview.org/programs/kenyon-review-award-for-literary-achievement/joyce-carol-oates/ Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement] (''[[The Kenyon Review]]'')<ref>{{cite web|title=Kenyon Review for Literary Achievement|url=http://www.kenyonreview.org/programs/kenyon-review-award-for-literary-achievement/|website=KenyonReview.org}}</ref>
* 2005: [[Prix Femina]] Etranger – ''The Falls''
* 2006: Chicago Tribune Literary Prize<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chfestival.org/fest2006/index.cfm?fa=home.program&id=1236&sec=adult |title=Chicago Humanities Festival &#124; Home |publisher=Chfestival.org |access-date=June 14, 2011}} {{Dead link|date=June 2011}}</ref> (''[[Chicago Tribune]]'')
* 2006: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, [[Mount Holyoke College]]<ref name="News & Events Mount Holyoke College">{{cite web|last=Creighton|first=Joanne|title=Joyce Carol Oates Honorary Degree Citation|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/story/4363490|access-date=January 13, 2012|archive-date=May 17, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517034430/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/story/4363490|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2006: [[National Magazine Awards]] (Fiction) - ''Smother''
* 2007: Humanist of the Year, [[American Humanist Association]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2007/06/joyce-carol-oates-named-humani.html|title=Joyce Carol Oates named Humanist of the Year|publisher=Dallasnews.com|date=June 8, 2007|access-date=July 23, 2013|first=Sam|last=Hodges|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320211324/http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2007/06/joyce-carol-oates-named-humani.html/|archive-date=March 20, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2009: [[National Book Critics Circle Award#Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement|Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement]], NBCC<ref name=nbccwinners/><ref name=nbccsandrof>[https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/sandrof/ "Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award"], NBCC. Retrieved April 14, 2012.</ref>
* 2010: [[National Humanities Medal]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030106522.html|title=White House to honor 19 with National Humanities Medal and National Medal for the Arts|work=Washingtonpost.com|date=March 2, 2011|access-date=June 14, 2011|first=Jacqueline|last=Trescott}}</ref>
* 2010: [[Premio Fernanda Pivano|Fernanda Pivano Award]]
* 2011: Honorary Doctor of Arts, [[University of Pennsylvania]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upenn.edu|title=Penn: University of Pennsylvania|publisher=Upenn.edu|access-date=June 14, 2011}}</ref>
* 2011: [[World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction]] – ''Fossil-Figures''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/winners/|title=Winners, World Fantasy Convention}}</ref>
* 2011: [[Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection]] – ''The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/uncategorized/2011-bram-stoker-award-winners-nominees/|title=2011 Bram Stoker Award Nominees & Winners}}</ref>
* 2012: [[Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement]], [[Oregon State University]]
* 2012: [[Norman Mailer Prize]], Lifetime Achievement<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/24/joyce-carol-oates-salutes-norman-mailer.html|title=Joyce Carol Oates Salutes Norman Mailer|work=The Daily Beast|author=Joyce Carol Oates|date=October 4, 2012|access-date=April 30, 2013}}</ref>
* 2012: [[Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection]] – ''Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/uncategorized/2012-bram-stoker-awards-winners-nominees/|title=2012 Bram Stoker Award Nominees & Winners}}</ref>
* 2012: [[New York State Writers Hall of Fame]] Class of 2012
* 2016: [[International Thriller Writers Awards]] (Short Story) - ''Gun Accident: An Investigation''
* 2016: Bram Stoker Award (Fiction Collection) - ''The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror''
* 2016: Bram Stoker Award (Short Fiction) - ''The Crawl Space'' - '''Won'''
* 2017: International Thriller Writers Awards (Short Story) - ''Big Momma''
* 2017: [[Los Angeles Times Book Prize]], best Mystery/Thrillers, for ''A Book of American Martyrs''
* 2019: [[Jerusalem Prize]], Lifetime Achievement
* 2020: [[Prix mondial Cino Del Duca]], work as a message of modern humanism
* 2023: Taobuk Award, for high-profile personalities in the literary, artistic and civic worlds
* 2024: Honorary Doctor of the Humane Letters, [[Princeton University]]
* 2024: Fitzgerald Prize, France
{{div col end}}
*

===Finalist===
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* 1970: [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] – ''The Wheel of Love and Other Stories''<ref>Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich. The Pulitzer Prize Archive, Volume 10, "Novel/Fiction Awards 1917–1994". Munich: K.G. Saur, 1994. LX–LXI.</ref>
* 1993: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Black Water''<ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Fiction "Fiction"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved April 14, 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://jco.usfca.edu/awards.html |title=University of San Francisco (USF) – Celestial Timepiece: the Joyce Carol Oates Home Page |publisher=Jco.usfca.edu |access-date=June 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070412224424/http://jco.usfca.edu/awards.html |archive-date=April 12, 2007 }}</ref>
* 1995: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''What I Lived For''<ref name=pulitzer />
* 2001: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Blonde''<ref name=pulitzer />
* 2015: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – ''Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories''<ref name=pulitzer />
* 2015: Killer Nashville Awards (Silver Falchion Award - Collection) - ''High Crime Area: Tales of Darkness and Dread''<ref> https://www.killernashville.com/past-award-winners/2015 </ref>
{{div col end}}

===Nominated===
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* 1963: O. Henry Award – Special Award for Continuing Achievement (1970), five Second Prize (1964 to 1989), two First Prize (above) among 29 nominations<ref name=ohenrywinners />
* 1968: National Book Award for Fiction – ''A Garden of Earthly Delights''<ref name=nba1968>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1968 "National Book Awards – 1968"]. NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011.</ref>
* 1969: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Expensive People''<ref name=nba1969>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1969 "National Book Awards – 1969"]. NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011.</ref>
* 1972: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Wonderland''<ref name=nba1972>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1972 "National Book Awards – 1972"]. NBF. Retrieved April 14, 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://jco.usfca.edu/works/novels/wonderland.html |title=Joyce Carol Oates – Wonderland |publisher=Jco.usfca.edu |access-date=June 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090526064210/http://jco.usfca.edu/works/novels/wonderland.html |archive-date=May 26, 2009 }}</ref>
* 1980: Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Best Fiction, for ''Bellefleur''
* 1987: Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Best Fiction, for ''You Must Remember This''
* 1990: National Book Award for Fiction – ''Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart''<ref name=nba1990>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1990 "National Book Awards – 1990"]. NBF. Retrieved June 14, 2011.</ref>
* 1992: [[National Book Critics Circle Award]], Fiction – ''Black Water''<ref name=nbccwinners>[http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/ "All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427180857/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/ |date=April 27, 2019 }} (multiple pages). [[National Book Critics Circle]] ('''NBCC'''). Retrieved April 14, 2012.</ref>
* 1995: [[PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction|PEN/Faulkner Award]] – ''What I Lived For''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.penfaulkner.org/affWinners01.htm |title=Folger Shakespeare Library |publisher=Penfaulkner.org |access-date=June 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413071458/http://www.penfaulkner.org/affWinners01.htm |archive-date=April 13, 2011 }}</ref>
* 1995: [[Locus Award]] (Collection) - ''Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sfadb.com/Joyce_Carol_Oates | title=Sfadb : Joyce Carol Oates Awards }}</ref>
* 1995: [[World Fantasy Award]] (Collection) for ''Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque''
* 1997: Locus Award (Anthology) - ''American Gothic Tales''
* 1998: International Horror Guild Award, best Collection, for ''The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque''
* 2000: National Book Award – ''Blonde''<ref name=nba2000>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2000 "National Book Awards – 2000"]. NBF. Retrieved April 14, 2014.</ref>
* 2000: Bram Stoker Award (Long Fiction) - ''In Shock''
* 2001: Locus Award (Novelette) - ''In Shock''
* 2001: International Horror Guild Award, best Short Fiction, for ''Angel of Mercy''
* 2002: Los Angeles Book Prize, Best Young Adult Novel, for ''Big Mouth & Ugly Girl''
* 2003: Bram Stoker Award (Short Fiction) - ''The Haunting''
* 2003: [[Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Short Story]] - ''Angel of Wrath''
* 2003: International Horror Guild Award (Long Fiction) for ''Rape: A Love Story''
* 2007: National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction – ''The Gravedigger's Daughter''<ref name=nbccwinners />
* 2007: National Book Critics Circle Award, Memoir/Autobiography – ''The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973–1982''<ref name=nbccwinners />
* 2008: [[Macavity Awards]] (Sue Feder Memorial Award For Best Historical Mystery) - ''The Gravedigger's Daughter''
* 2008: [[Shirley Jackson Award]] (Collection) - ''Wild Nights!''
* 2011: [[International Dublin Literary Award]] - ''Little Bird of Heaven''
* 2011: [[Shirley Jackson Award]] (Single-Author Collection) - ''The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares''
* 2013: [[Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award]] for ''Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/31/frank-o-connor-short-story-award |title=Frank O'Connor short story award pits UK authors against international stars |work=The Guardian |author=Alison Flood |date=May 31, 2013 |access-date=June 16, 2014}}</ref>
* 2013: [[Goodreads Choice Awards]] (Best Horror) for ''The Accursed''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-horror-books-2013 | title=Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Horror! }}</ref>
* 2013: Shirley Jackson Award (Novel) - ''The Accursed''
* 2017: [[Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Short Story]] - ''The Crawl Space''
* 2017: Macavity Awards (Mystery Short Story) - ''The Crawl Space''
* 2021: Goodreads Choice Awards (Best Poetry) for ''American Melancholy: Poems''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-poetry-books-2021 | title=Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Poetry! }}</ref>
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [http://celestialtimepiece.com/ Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Patchwork] (Official Web Site)
* [https://achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/#interview Joyce Carol Oates Biography and Interview on American Academy of Achievement]
* [https://celestialtimepiece.com/2017/03/22/joyce-carol-oates-bibliography/ The Glass Ark: A Joyce Carol Oates Bibliography]
* [http://repository.usfca.edu/ontarioreview/ ''Ontario Review'']
* {{LCAuth|n78095538|Joyce Carol Oates|235|}}
* [http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/o/oates_jc.htm Papers of Joyce Carol Oates at Syracuse University]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100701033444/http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/an-interview-with-joyce-carol-oates/ Interview with the ''Oxonian Review'' in June 2010]}}
* [http://www.kcrw.com/people/joyce-carol-oates Joyce Carol Oates Bookworm Interviews] (Audio) with [[Michael Silverblatt]]
* [http://www.wnyc.org/story/joyce-carol-oates-lost-landscape/ Interview October 13, 2015 WNYC Leonard Lopate show]
* [https://www.narrativemagazine.com/authors/joyce-carol-oates Biography at Narrative Magazine]
* {{IMDb name|0643093}}
* {{ISFDB name|1389}}

{{Joyce Carol Oates}}
{{NBA for Fiction 1950–1974}}
{{Bram Stoker Award Best Novel}}
{{Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement}}
{{World Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction}}
{{Authority control}}

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