Contents

Introduction
Chronology
Joyce Carol Oates at HomeWalter Clemons
An Interview with Joyce Carol OatesLinda Kuehl
Hunger for DreamsPaul D. Zimmerman
The Dark Lady of American LettersJoe David Bellamy
An Interview with Joyce Carol OatesJohn Alfred Avant
Joyce Carol Oates: Love and ViolenceWalter Clemons
Focus on Joyce Carol OatesMichael and Ariane Batterberry
Transformation of Self: An interview with Joyce Carol OatesThe Ohio Review
Joyce Carol OatesJudith Applebaum
Joyce Carol Oates: The Art of Fiction LXXIIRobert Phillips
The Emergence of Joyce Carol OatesLucinda Franks
Speaking about Short Fiction: An Interview with Joyce Carol OatesSanford Pinsker
An Interview with Joyce Carol OatesLeif Sjoberg
A Taste of OatesJay Parini
A Conversation with Joyce Carol OatesFrank McLaughlin
My Friend, Joyce Carol Oates: An Intimate PortraitElaine Showalter
Joyce Carol Oates and the Hardest Part of WritingMichael Schumacher
A Sad Joyce Carol Oates Forswears PseudonymsEdwin McDowell
A Heavyweight Looks at BoxingGeorge Vecsey
My Writing is Full of Lives I Might Have LedJay Parini
Making Readers Want Novels Is Writer's Hardest JobMichele Weldon
Joyce Carol Oates Keeps PunchingRobert Compton
A Day in the LifeRita D. Jacobs
Author Oates Tells Where She's Been, Where She's GoingDavid Germain
Oates Writes out of "Fascination," not ZealGeorge Myers, Jr.
Index

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Dust-Jacket Blurb

Here is a collection of virtually every interview Joyce Carol Oates has granted. It reveals this acclaimed writer's deep commitment to the restorative power of literature.In these twenty-five interviews ranging from early in Oates's career to the present she talks candidly about her purposes, her concepts of literature, and her methods of writing.She views her works as a panorama of modern American life, a vast canvas of great import. "I could not take the time to write," she says, "about a group of people who did not represent, in their various struggles, fantasies, unusual experiences, hopes, etc., our society in miniature."Oates expounds upon this theme and upon her responsibility as an artist "to bear witness," and in this light she responds to criticisms that violence seems to dominate her work. She notes: "One simply cannot know strengths unless suffering, misfortune, and violence are explored quite frankly by the writer."In addition to discussing her works—from her first book, By the North Gate (1963), to her most popular novel, You Must Remember This (1987)—this prolific writer answers questions about her writing habits, including explanations of how she initially composes in longhand and how carefully she rewrites and revises. She tells of one huge revision, the ending of Wonderland for the English edition because she was still dissatisfied with the conclusion in the original American version.This great American author acknowledges the influences of other great writers, including Woolf, Faulkner, Kafka, Freud, Mann, Dostoevsky, Melville, Proust, Stendahl, Sartre, Flaubert, and Katherine Anne Porter. To one interviewer she says, "I just see myself as standing in a very strong tradition and my debt to other writers is obvious. I couldn't exist without them."These interviews, spanning nineteen years, reveal a vivid portrait of Joyce Carol Oates writing as the conscience of society, as the creator of memorable prose and poetry, and as an artist deeply committed to a unique vision.