Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938–, American author, b. Lockport, N.Y., grad. B.A., Syracuse Univ., 1960, M.A., Univ. of Wisconsin, 1961. She taught English at the Univ. of Detroit and the Univ. of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and has been affiliated with Princeton Univ. since 1978. Oates writes about contemporary American life, which she sees as often defined by violence. She is particularly concerned with the connection between violence and love. Her characters are mainly ordinary, inarticulate people who sublimate the terrible things that happen to them. Although some of her novels have been labeled gothic, the violence in them is neither mysterious nor necessarily dramatic; it occurs randomly as in everyday life.

Extraordinarily prolific, Oates has published more than 100 books in a variety of genres, among them dozens of novels. These include With Shuddering Fall (1964); a trilogy: A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967, rev. ed. 2003), Expensive People (1968), and them (1969); Wonderland (1971); Childwold (1976); Cybele (1979); Bellefleur (1980); Solstice (1985); Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990); What I Lived For (1994); My Heart Laid Bare (1998); Blonde (2000), a fictional work based on the life of Marilyn Monroe Monroe, Marilyn, 1926–62, American movie actress, b. Los Angeles as Norma Jean Baker. Raised in orphanages and first married at 14, Monroe became a world-famous sex symbol and, after her death, a Hollywood legend.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and The Falls (2004). Oates's numerous short stories are collected in such volumes as Wheel of Love (1970), A Sentimental Education (1981), Heat (1991), Will You Always Love Me? (1996), Faithless (2001), and High Lonesome (2006). Oates also has written thrillers under the name Rosamond Smith, plus poems, plays, children's fiction, essays, literary criticism, and a book on boxing (1988).

Bibliography

See L. Milazzo, ed., Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates (1989); biography by G. Johnson (1998); study by E. G. Friedman (1980).

Oates, Joyce Carol

Joyce Carol Oates, 1992.

(credit: AP)

(born June 16, 1938, Lockport, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. writer. Oates taught at the University of Windsor (1967–78) and Princeton University (from 1978). Beginning with the story collection By the North Gate (1963) and the novel With Shuddering Fall (1964), she wrote prolifically, often portraying people whose intensely experienced lives end in bloodshed and self-destruction owing to forces beyond their control. Her major novels include them (1969), Do with Me What You Will (1973), Foxfire (1993), and Beasts (2002). Also significant is a parodic gothic series including Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982), and Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984).

Oates, Joyce Carol (Rosamond Smith, pen name) (1938– ) writer, poet; born in Lockport, N.Y. She studied at Syracuse University (B.A. 1960) and the University of Wisconsin (M.A. 1961), and taught at the University of Windsor, Ontario (1967–78) and Princeton (1978). A prolific writer, she published literary criticism, plays, short stories, and poetry, but is best known for her violent visionary novels.