Joyce Carol Oates

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Biography

I must confess that I find it difficult to keep up with Joyce Carol Oates. This does not mean that I do not consider her to be a fine writer. Indeed, she certainly is, one of the finest of the second half of the twentieth century in the United States. It is just that she has written so damned much that I have been unable to keep up with her work. She seems to write faster than I can read. This may seem a bit odd, when I have, under review, eighteen of her works, more than all but four other writers on this site, but it still represents a small proportion of her very fine work. Let me stress that this is my fault and not hers and, one day, I intend to read more of her work.

Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, New York, in 1938. This area, where she grew up, features in many of her novels, often disguised as Eden County. Even as a child she was writing stories and novels. She submitted her first novel to a publisher when she was fifteen. It was rejected as being too pessimistic. She won a scholarship to Syracuse University and graduated as valedictorian. She then took a Master’s at the University of Wisconsin. It was here where she met Raymond Smith whom she later married. She wrote her earlier works while teaching at the University of Detroit. She has produced an incredible amount of work, while teaching and editing The Ontario Review with her husband. After his death, she wrote a book – Widow’s Memoir– about him. She has also taught at the University of Windsor in Canada and at Princeton. She has also allegedly been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She remains one of the finest American writers.

Books about Joyce Carol Oates

Greg Johnson: Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates

Bibliography

1963 By the North Gate (short stories)
1964 With Shuddering Fall (novel)
1966 Upon the Sweeping Flood And Other Stories (short stories)
1967 A Garden of Earthly Delights (novel)
1968 Expensive People (novel)
1969 Anonymous Sins & Other Poems (poetry)
1969 them (novel)
1970 Love and Its Derangements (poetry)
1970 The Wheel of Love And Other Stories (short stories)
1971 Wonderland (novel)
1972 Marriages and Infidelities (short stories)
1972 The Edge of Impossibility: Tragic Forms in Literature (essays)
1973 Angel Fire (poetry)
1973 Do with Me What You Will (novel)
1974 Miracle Play (drama)
1974 New Heaven, New Earth: The Visionary Experience in Literature (essays)
1974 The Goddess and Other Women (short stories)
1974 The Hostile Sun: The Poetry of D. H. Lawrence (essays)
1974 The Hungry Ghosts: Seven Allusive Comedies (short stories)
1974 Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? : Stories of Young America (short stories)
1975 The Assassins: A Book of Hours (novel)
1975 The Fabulous Beasts (poetry)
1975 The Poisoned Kiss And Other Stories from the Portuguese (short stories)
1975 The Seduction & Other Stories (short stories)
1976 Childwold (novel)
1976 Crossing the Border (short stories)
1976 The Triumph of the Spider Monkey (novella)
1977 Night-Side (short stories)
1978 Son of the Morning (novel)
1978 Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money (poetry)
1979 All the Good People I’ve Left Behind (short stories)
1979 Cybele (novel)
1979 Unholy Loves (novel)
1980 A Sentimental Education: Stories (short stories)
1980 Bellefleur (novel)
1980 Three Plays (drama)
1981 Angel of Light (novel)
1981 Contraries: Essays (essays)
1982 A Bloodsmoor Romance (novel)
1982 Invisible Woman: New and Selected Poems, 1970-1982 (poetry)
1983 The Profane Art: Essays & Reviews (essays)
1984 Last Days: Stories (short stories)
1984 Mysteries of Winterthurn (novel)
1984 Wild Saturday (short stories)
1985 Solstice (novel)
1986 Marya: A Life (novel)
1986 Raven’s Wing: Stories (short stories)
1987 Lives of the Twins (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1987 On Boxing (essays)
1987 You Must Remember This (novel)
1988 (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (essays)
1989 Soul/Mate (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1989 American Appetites (novel)
1989 The Assignation: Stories (short stories)
1989 The Time Traveler (poetry)
1990 Nemesis (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1990 Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (novel)
1990 I Lock My Door Upon Myself (novella)
1990 Oates In Exile (short stories)
1991 Heat And Other Stories (short stories)
1991 I Stand Before You Naked (drama)
1991 In Darkest America (drama)
1991 The Rise of Life on Earth (novella)
1991 Twelve Plays (including The Eclipse and Black) (drama)
1992 Snake Eyes (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1992 Black Water (novella)
1992 Where Is Here? (short stories)
1993 Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (novel)
1993 Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Selected Early Stories (short stories)
1994 Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (short stories)
1994 What I Lived For (novel)
1995 You Can’t Catch Me (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1995 George Bellows: American Artist (essays)
1995 The Perfectionist and Other Plays (drama)
1995 Zombie (novel)
1996 Demon and other tales (short stories)
1996 First Love: A Gothic Tale (novella)
1996 Tenderness (poetry)
1996 We Were the Mulvaneys (novel)
1996 Will You Always Love Me? And Other Stories (short stories)
1997 Double Delight (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1997 Man Crazy (novel)
1998 Come Meet Muffin! (juvenile)
1998 My Heart Laid Bare (novel)
1998 New Plays (drama)
1998 The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque (short stories)
1999 Starr Bright Will Be With you Soon (novel as Rosamond Smith)
1999 Broke Heart Blues (novel)
1999 Where I’ve Been, And Where I’m Going: Essays, Reviews, and Prose (essays)
2000 Blonde (novel)
2001 The Barrens (novel as Rosamond Smith)
2001 Faithless: Tales of Transgression (short stories)
2001 Middle Age: A Romance (novel)
2002 Beasts (novella)
2002 Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (young adult)
2002 I’ll Take You There (novel)
2003 Freaky Green Eyes (young adult)
2003 Rape: A Love Story (novella)
2003 Small Avalanches and Other Stories (young adult)
2003 Take Me, Take Me With You (novel as Lauren Kelly)
2003 The Faith of A Writer: Life, Craft, Art (essays)
2003 The Tattooed Girl (novel)
2003 Where Is Little Reynard? (juvenile)
2004 Dr. Magic: Six One Act Plays (drama)
2004 I Am No One You Know: Stories (short stories)
2004 The Falls (novel)
2005 Missing Mom (novel)
2005 Sexy (young adult)
2005 The Stolen Heart (novel as Lauren Kelly)
2005 The Corn Maiden: A Love Story (novella)
2005 Uncensored: Views & (Re)views (essays)
2006 Blood Mask (novel as Lauren Kelly)
2006 After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (young adult)
2006 High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966-2006 (short stories)
2006 The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense (short stories)
2007 The Gravedigger’s Daughter (novel)
2007 The Museum of Dr Moses (stories)
2008 Wild Nights! (stories)
2008 My Sister, My Love (novel)
2008 Naughty Chérie! (juvenile)
2009 Little Bird of Heaven (novel)
2009 Dear Husband (stories)
2010 Sourland: Stories (stories)
2010 A Fair Maiden (novel)
2010 In Rough Country (essays and reviews)
2011 Give Me Your Heart (stories)
2011 The Corn Maiden (stories)
2011 A Widow’s Story: A Memoir
2012 The Rescuer (novella)
2012 Patricide (novella)
2012 Mudwoman (novel)
2012 Black Dahlia & White Rose (stories)
2012 Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You (young adult)
2013 Carthage (novel)
2013 Daddy Love (novel)
2013 The Accursed (novel)
2014 High Crime Area (stories)
2014 Lovely, Dark, Deep (stories)
2014 Evil Eye (stories)
2015 The Sacrifice (novel)
2015 Jack of Spades (novel)
2015 The Lost Landscape (memoirs)
2016 The Man Without a Shadow (novel)
2016 Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (stories)
2017 A Book of American Martyrs (novel)
2017 Dis mem ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense (stories)
2017 Nemesis (novel)
2017 You Can’t Catch Me (novel)
2017 Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession, and the Writing Life (essays)
2018 Beautiful Days (stories)
2018 Hazards of Time Travel (novel)
2018 Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense (stories)
2019 My Life As a Rat (novel)
2019 Pursuit (novel)
2020 Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars (novel)
2020 Cardiff, by the Sea (novel)
2021 The (Other) You (stories)
2021 Melancholy (poetry)
2021 Breathe (novel)
2022 Babysitter (novel)
2022 Extenuating Circumstances (novel)
2023 48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister (novel)
2023 Zero Sum (stories)
2024 Butcher (novel)
2024 Broke Heart Blues (novel)
2024 Flint Kill Creek : Stories of Mystery and Suspense (stories)
2025 Fox (novel)

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The world-wide literary novel from early 20th Century onwards