Joyce Carol Oates

American writer (b. Lockport 1938). Author of bestselling novels, critically acclaimed collections of short fiction, as well as essays, plays, poems and a memoir, A Widow’s Story. Her literary activity – which also includes work as an editor and anthologist – spans forms, themes, topics and genres. Best known for her fiction, her novels include: Them, which won the National Book Award; Blonde, a daring re-imagining of Marilyn Monroe’s inner life; The Falls, which won the French Prix Femina; The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Little bird of Heaven, We Were the Mulvaneys, which follows the disintegration of an American family. His publications also include The Accursed, which Stephen King called ‘the world’s first postmodern Gothic novel’. His awards include two O. Henry and two Bram Stoker Prizes, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, the World Fantasy Award, and the M. L. Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 2009, Oates received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. In 2010, as a testament to the wide esteem in which her work is held, President Barack Obama awarded Oates the National Humanities Medal. In 2019 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize and in 2020 the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.