Joyce Carol Oates

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American novelist, short story writer, play wright, poet, and non-fiction writer.
Born: February 18, 1931

in her own words
"I have often felt that I'm a very neutral being and that I have almost no personality. But as far as my own personality's concerned, it's as if I'm a neutral or transparent medium. One thing comes, by way of the medium, into being a book or some writing. I don't know whether I was different from other people. Perhaps I am. Perhaps no one has a personality, and people are inventing themselves in the context in which they find themselves."

known for
Being the world's most prolific writer. Seriously. Some of her stuff is shit (but most of it's not), but that's what happens when you publish two or three books a year, while teaching at Princeton full time. Her productivity puts the rest of the universe to shame.

get ready to shit kittens
Here's her bibliography:

Novels
With Shuddering Fall (1964)
A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967)
Expensive People (1968)
them (1969)
Wonderland (1971)
Do with Me What You Will (1973)
The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975)
Childwold (1976)
Son of the Morning (1978)
Cybele (1979)
Unholy Loves (1979)
Bellefleur (1980)
Angel of Light (1981)
A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982)
Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984)
Solstice (1985)
Marya: A Life (1986)
You Must Remember This (1987)
American Appetites (1989)
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990)
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993; the basis for the 1996 film Foxfire)
What I Lived For (1994)
Zombie (1995)
We Were the Mulvaneys (1996)
Man Crazy (1997)
My Heart Laid Bare (1998)
Broke Heart Blues (1999)
Blonde (2000)
Middle Age: A Romance (2001)
I'll Take You There (2002)
The Tattooed Girl (2003)
The Falls (2004)
Missing Mom (2005)

Novels as "Rosamond Smith"
Lives of the Twins (1987)
Soul/Mate (1989)
Nemesis (1990)
Snake Eyes (1992)
You Can't Catch Me (1995)
Double Delight (1997)
Starr Bright Will Be With you Soon (1999)
The Barrens (2001)

Novels as "Lauren Kelly"
Take Me, Take Me With You (2003)
The Stolen Heart (2005)

Novellas
The Triumph of the Spider Monkey (1976)
I Lock My Door Upon Myself (1990)
The Rise of Life on Earth (1991)
Black Water (1992)
First Love: A Gothic Tale (1996)
Beasts (2002)
Rape: A Love Story (2003)

Short Story Collections
By the North Gate (1963)
Upon the Sweeping Flood And Other Stories (1966)
The Wheel of Love And Other Stories (1970)
Marriages and Infidelities (1972)
The Goddess and Other Women (1974)
The Hungry Ghosts: Seven Allusive Comedies (1974)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? : Stories of Young America (1974)
The Poisoned Kiss And Other Stories from the Portuguese (1975)
The Seduction & Other Stories (1975)
Crossing the Border (1976)
Night-Side (1977)
All the Good People I've Left Behind (1979)
A Sentimental Education: Stories (1980)
Last Days: Stories (1984)
Wild Saturday (1984)
Raven's Wing: Stories (1986)
The Assignation: Stories (1989)
Oates In Exile (1990)
Heat And Other Stories (1991)
Where Is Here? (1992)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Selected Early Stories (1993)
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (1994)
Demon and other tales (1996)
Will You Always Love Me? And Other Stories (1996)
The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque (1998)
Faithless: Tales of Transgression (2001)
I Am No One You Know: Stories (2004)
The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense (2006)

Drama
Miracle Play (1974)
Three Plays (1980)
In Darkest America (1991)
I Stand Before You Naked (1991)
Twelve Plays (1991) (including The Eclipse and Black)
The Perfectionist and Other Plays (1995)
New Plays (1998)
Dr. Magic: Six One Act Plays (2004)
Essays and Criticism
The Edge of Impossibility: Tragic Forms in Literature (1972)
The Hostile Sun: The Poetry of D.H. Lawrence (1974)
New Heaven, New Earth: The Visionary Experience in Literature (1974)
Contraries: Essays (1981)
The Profane Art: Essays & Reviews (1983)
On Boxing (1987)
(Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (1988)
George Bellows: American Artist (1995)
Where I've Been, And Where I'm Going: Essays, Reviews, and Prose (1999)
The Faith of A Writer: Life, Craft, Art (2003)
Uncensored: Views & (Re)views (2005)

Poetry
Anonymous Sins & Other Poems (1969)
Love and Its Derangements (1970)
Angel Fire (1973)
The Fabulous Beasts (1975)
Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money (1978)
Invisible Woman: New and Selected Poems, 1970-1982 (1982)
The Time Traveler (1989)
Tenderness (1996)

Young Adult
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002)
Small Avalanches and Other Stories (2003)
Freaky Green Eyes (2003)
Sexy (2005)

Children
Come Meet Muffin! (1998)
Where Is Little Reynard? (2003