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Joyce Carol Oates Facts & Worksheets

Joyce Carol Oates is a well-known American writer who has a broad literary output.

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Joyce Carol Oates is a well-known American writer who has a broad literary output. She has written best-selling novels, stories, poetry, and essays, and won the 1969 National Book Award. Most of her literary works reflect the hardships in society.

See the fact file below for more information on the Joyce Carol Oates or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Joyce Carol Oates worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY YEARS

  • Joyce Carol Oates was the youngest child of Frederic James, a tool-and-die designer. Her mother was Caroline Oates.
  • Oates developed her passion for writing while experiencing some hardship at a farm in Lockport, New York, where she was born.
  • Her dedication to writing was immediately seen by the people around her. Her grandma gave her the first typewriter she owned, and she used it throughout her years in secondary and tertiary education.
  • Oates graduated from Williamsville South High School in 1956.
  • After high school, Oates received a scholarship from Syracuse University in New York, where she graduated with a degree in English.
  • She then took part in a fiction contest sponsored by Mademoiselle magazine and was a joint winner of the competition.
  • In 1961, Oates received her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, the same year that she married her fellow student, Raymond J. Smith.
  • Oates began a career as a teacher before pursuing literature and writing, with her first teaching years spent at the University of Detroit in Beaumont, Texas.

CAREER

  • After graduating from her master’s degree, Oates began teaching and also decided to start her writing career.
  • Early in her career, Oates wrote short stories for a number of reviews and magazines, including Prairie Schooner, Literary Review, Southwest Review, and Epoch.
  • From 1961 to 1967, Oates taught English at the University of Detroit. From 1967 to 1978, she spent her teaching years at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Lastly, she started teaching at Princeton University in 1987 and retired in 2014.
  • Oates published her first short story collection, By the North Gate (1963), and her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, in 1964. These were followed by a second short story collection, Upon the Sweeping Flood (1965). From then, she wrote prolifically, averaging two books per year.
  • Oates also wrote suspense novels under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly. Her novel We Were The Mulvaneys (1996) became the bestseller in Oprah’s Book Club in 2001.

AWARDS

  • Oates received the O. Henry Award for In the Region of Ice in 1967.
  • In 1968, she received the M. L. Rosenthal Award for A Garden of Earthly Delights.
  • In 1970, her novel Them won the National Book Award.
  • Oates’ work entitled The Dead won her the O. Henry Award in 1973.
  • She was also recognized by PEN/Malamud Award for ‘Excellence in the Art of the Short Story’ in 1996.
  • In 2010, she received the National Humanities Medal.
  • Oates then received the Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement in 2012 from Oregon State University.
  • In 2013, The Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories, won the category of Best Fiction Collection and received the Bram Stoker Award.

PSEUDONYMS

  • Oates published a number of works under pseudonyms, stories under “Rae Jolene Smith” and “Fernandes” and novels under “Rosamond Smith” (the feminization of her husband’s name) and “Lauren Kelly”.
  • This provoked controversy because of the policy that a writer should publish only one work per year.
  • It was her “escape from herself”, she said.

Joyce Carol Oates Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Joyce Carol Oates across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Joyce Carol Oates worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Joyce Carol Oates who is a well-known American writer who has a broad literary output. She has written best-selling novels, stories, poetry, and essays, and won the 1969 National Book Award. Most of her literary works reflect the hardships in society.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Joyce Carol Oates Facts
  • Choose in the Box
  • “Them”
  • Poem Symbolism
  • Five-Line Poem
  • Blindfolded Works
  • Quotes
  • Literary Genres
  • Pseudonyms
  • The Writer in You
  • Awards

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