Joyce Carol Oates’s literary career
The prolific writing career of Joyce Carol Oates has a yielded more than fifty-novels and numerous poems and short-stories. Oates was born in 1938, and by the age of 26 she had published her debut novel entitled, ‘When Shuttering Fall’, but it was her 1969 Novel entitled ‘Them’, which earned her acclaim and a legion of followers. For that novel she received the National Book Award in 1970. Oates has been nominated for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize on three occasions and has long been considered a favorite to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – but as of 2011 she has not earned either honor.
Oates was praised by fellow writer Norman Mailer, for being a woman who delved into subject matter which was not frequently tackled by female writers. Violence and conflict often permeated her work, perhaps the result of having been influenced by a great number of male writers while growing up. Kafka, Dostoevsky and Mann were amongst her favorite authors during her teenage years and the bleak and sinister themes of many of their stories had a strong influence on Oates’ writing career.
Joyce Carol Oates perhaps respected no writer more than the troubled Sylvia Plath, and described Plath’s masterwork, ‘The Bell Jar’, as a ‘near perfect work of art.’ In 1996 Oates published a novel entitled, ‘We Were the Mulvaneys.’ The novel quickly became a best-seller in 2001 after its selection by Oprah Winfrey to her influential book club. Joyce Carol Oates continues to write novels to this day and has earned a great deal of critical respect due to her long and storied career. She continues to write at least 5 hours each day in longhand and her large output of material has not waned, despite the fact that she is now into her seventies.