Joyce Carol Oates on the Process of Revision

If you want to get some perspective on the number of papers you have to write this semester, look no further than Philosophy Hall. Monday night, Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific writers working today, will be the featured speaker at the School of the Arts’ Creative Writing Lecture Series.

Oates has published over fifty novels, short stories, and poems to date, and is renowned for her ability to produce these masterly works in short periods of time. Yet Oates herself denies that she is particularly prolific. “Perhaps I am ‘prolific’ only in a context in which others are ‘less prolific’ ... these matters are all highly relative,” she said. In any case, Oates has produced an inimitable corpus of work since her first book was published nearly fifty years ago.

With such a lengthy career, Oates offers deep insight on the process of revision. She will discuss this process at Monday’s lecture in addition to reading a short story and discussing other elements of fiction writing. “Short stories are a natural form of storytelling—perhaps my favorite genre to both read and to write. The novel is a far more difficult and demanding form, of course.”

In between writing and giving lectures, Oates teaches creative writing at Princeton University. She explained that she loves working with writers of all ages on their craft. Oates hopes to help aspiring writers find the subjects that most interest them­—aspiring writers who may later inherit the legacy of her and her peers. “Most writers explore themes consistently through their careers,” Oates said, “and I suppose that I am in this tradition.”