Jones-Oates

**JOYCE CAROL OATES** ​ -Joyce Carol Oates is known as one of America’s most “prolific” writers since the 1960's. -Oates was born in Lockport, New York, on June 16, 1938. -Oates stated that during her childhood “a great deal frightened me.” -Oates received her Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and became a professor at Princeton University, teaching a creative writing program. -Oates and her husband, Raymond Joseph Smith, created the //Ontario Review// in 1974.
 * BACKGROUND **

-Oates has produced novels, short stories, poems, playwrights, and has been a literary critic and editor. -1968-1978 was known as Oates' most productive writing period. -Ernest Hemingway and William Faulker, as well as family history, have influenced her work. -Oates' works covered a vast range of topics and genres, including: gothicism, sexual and physical abuse, murder and suicide, violence and suffering, religion challenges, family, suspense, as well as other themes. -Some of these themes were based on the social tensions within Detriot, personal experiences, and her atheistic religious beliefs. -Oates has won numerous nominations and awards, including the National Book Award, two O. Henry Awards, and nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. -Oates' pseudonyms include Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
 * LITERARY WORKS **

Regarding her literary work, Oates stated, "I'm very deeply inculcated with a sense of failure...I often write about it...because I feel I'm contending with it constantly in my own life. A sense that there is a movement toward light...requires strength and ingenuity...I'm in the throes of that contest every day of my life, virtually."

**WORKS BY OATES ** By the North Gate (1963), Ontario Review (1967), With Shuddering Fall (1964), A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967), Expensive People (1967), them (1969), Wonderland (1971), Do With Me What You Will (1973), The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975), Son of the Morning (1978), Unholy Loves (1979), Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982), Mysteries of Winterthorn (1984), Solstice (1985), Marya: A Life (1986), Lives of the Twins (1987), You Must Remember This (1987), Where are you going, Where have you been? : Stories of Young America (1974), The Lamb of Abyssalia (1980), Raven’s Wing (1986), Because it is Bitter, and Because it is, My Heart (1990), Black Water (1992), Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993), Broke Heart Blues (1999), Blonde (2000), Heat (1992), Middle Age: A Romance (2001), Beasts (2001)  //Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page//. Web. 04 Jan. 2010. . "Joyce Carol Oates Biography - life, family, childhood, children, parents, name, story, death, wife, school, mother, young, son, book, old, information, born, college, husband, house, time, year." //Encyclopedia of World Biography//. Web. 04 Jan. 2010. <[]>. "Joyce Carol Oates Interview -- Academy of Achievement." //Academy of Achievement Main Menu//. Web. 04 Jan. 2010. <[]>.
 * WORKS CITED **