Joyce Carol Oates: A Life of Literature

December 22, 2008 Jessica Finne
Tags: Joyce Carol Oates

Jessica Finne

Ms. Bazinet

Honors English III

8 December 2008

 

 Joyce Carol Oates: A Life of Literature

 

On June 6 1938, Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, New York.  There in Lockport, Oates’ parents, Frederic and Caroline owned a farm and raised a family of three children.  Growing up in the countryside of New York, Joyce attended school in a single roomed schoolhouse through the elemental school years.  Even though reading was taught in school, art was the more fluent language that Oates developed.  She drew and painted many beautiful pictures, inventing stories based off her creations.

At the age of 14, Oates imaginative and creative mind was able to create stories and put them on paper, after receiving a typewriter from her parents.  At the age of 15, Joyce Carol Oates wrote a surprising first novel about the rehabilitation of a drug addict.  Due to the mature content of this book, however, no one would publish it, thinking that it was discouraging for young adult readers.  Even though she was a bit discouraged, this minor bump in the road would not stop her, and she continued writing novel after novel all throughout high school.

As high school was coming to a close, Oates received a scholarship to Syracuse University in New York.  At Syracuse, she began her thorough studies on English.  Throughout college, Oates developed her writing abilities and it eventually paid off when she co-won first place for her fictional stories at a contest sponsored by Mademoiselle Magazine.  In 1960, Oates graduated top of her class as valedictorian and moved her schooling to the University of Wisconsin.  While attending the University of Wisconsin, she met Raymond Joseph Smith, an English professor who would later become her husband in 1961.

After Joyce Carol Oates earned her Masters Degree at the University of Wisconsin, she continued her studies to earn her doctorate.  One day, after hours of tough classes Oates sat down to relax with Best American Short Stories, a collection by Margaret Foley.  As she was flipping through the pages looking for a story to read, she came upon one of her own stories.  At that moment, she knew that she wanted to pursue a career in writing. By the age 25, in 1963, Joyce Carol Oates published her first book of short stories, By the North Gate.

While continuing her writing career Oates found a job at the University of Detroit.  She worked there until 1967 when she and her husband, Raymond, moved to Canada.  In Canada, both Joyce and Raymond taught at the University of Windsor. Seven years after moving to Canada, they decided to leave the University of Windsor and go back to the United States.  Deciding that balancing a job and a writing career was too much, Oates left the teaching scene for a while so she could focus more on her writing.  This break from teaching lasted until she took up a position at Princeton University in New Jersey. 

To this day, Joyce Carol Oates and her husband live together in Princeton, New Jersey.  She teaches a Creative writing class and helps Raymond edit The Ontario Review, a publishing company they had established in 1974 while still in Canada.  Joyce Carol Oates has led a life full of achievement and short stories to be remembered for years. 

 

Works Cited

 

“JOYCE CAROL OATES Biography”. Advameg, Inc. December 6, 2008

<http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Oates-Joyce-Carol.html>.

 

Oates, Joyce Carol. After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread

my Wings, and Flew Away (Extras Inside). New York, New York: Ontario Review, Inc., 2006.

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