Joyce Carol Oates, born June 16, 1938, is an American writer renowned for her prolific output across a span of over six decades. She published her first book in 1963, and since then, has authored 58 novels, numerous plays, novellas, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her works such as Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), alongside her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates has been honored with many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).

Aside from her literary achievements, Oates has made significant contributions to academia. She served at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014 as the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. Additionally, from 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. Currently, Oates teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and she was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016. Joyce Carol Oates is also known for writing under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.