Who Is Joyce Carol Oates?

Oates is the author of the award winning novel, The Falls. The author was born June 16, 1938 and grew up to be a notable American author, touching on hard issues such as suicide, promiscuity, homoseuality, adultery, and death in her work. Joyce Carol Oates published her first book in 1963, and since then has published over 50 novels, as well as short stories, poetry, and fiction. Along with writing the wildly successfal novel The Falls, she had many other works that garnered global recognition and accolades. The novel Them (1969) received the National Book Award and her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000) were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Starting in 2008, Oates is the Rpger S. Berlind'52 Professor in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing currently at Princeton University, where she has been a teacher there since 1978.

Oates was born in Lockport, NY to Carolina Oates, a homemaker, and Frederic Oates, a tool designer. The Fall's Troy, NY setting took place not far from Oates' childhood home. She was raised catholic (a religion detested by the character's of The Falls) but turned athiest throughout adulthood. Joyce had a deep admiration for literary greats like Thoreau, Bronte, Faulkner, and Hemingway, where she drew much inspiration for the development of her writing. Oates was the first member of her family to graduate highschool, going to Syracuse on scholarship, then later to the University of Wisconsin. Joyce met Raymond J. Smith at the University of Wisconsin, whom she later married in 1961.