About American Writers’ Week: Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 60 novels and many volumes of short stories, criticism and memoir, earning her five Pulitzer Prize nominations and a National Book award, among others. Her best-known works in a remarkably consistent career include Blonde, a haunting, fictionalised account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, Them, part of the Wonderland quartet, and Zombie, loosely based on the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. She reflects on violence and death, the real and the imagined, patriarchy and human failings, including in her recent The Fox, a novel of literary and psychological suspense about the dark secrets that surface after the shocking disappearance of a charismatic, mercurial teacher. At the same time she is rarely judgmental, and her new collection of short stories The Frenzy, is sympathetic to the impact of loss and the power of friendship.
At the age of 88 Joyce Carol Oates is also an active and powerful voice on social media.
Part of the British Library’s American Writers’ Week (28 September to 2 November), presented in association with Festival America, Vincennes, France. Participating writers include Alison Bechdel, Daniel Kraus, Jeanine Cummins, Joyce Carol Oates, Katie Kitamura and Rabih Alameddine and Viet Thanh Nguyen.
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Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of a National Humanities Medal awarded by President Barack Obama.
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Joyce Carol Oates is also the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle’s Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award in Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina, the Cino Del Duca World Prize, and is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the bestsellers Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys. She is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Princeton University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2024 she won the Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award given to 'a master of the thriller and noir literary genre'.
Venue and bar opening times
This event will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre and is also available to watch online. Tickets may be booked to attend in person, or to watch online.
If you are attending in person, please note that the Knowledge Centre and the bar will be open in advance of your event.
Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. If you have specific access requirements please email customer@bl.uk
Attending the event online
If you book an online ticket, you will receive the viewing link on the morning of the event. You can either watch the event live or during the next 14 days on catch up.
Concessions
There are a range of concessions available. These include discounts for British Library Members, Young Persons (16 – 25s), and visitors on Universal/Pension Credit and free entry for carers.
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