The new novel from Joyce Carol Oates is a Boschian descent into the mind of a deluded surgeon who runs a New Jersey asylum for women
On balance, Butcher is a savage literary provocation.
The Spooky Season: Joyce Carol Oates offers up fifteen tales of body horror by women
Body horror is by nature a visceral mode, and many of the writers here take full advantage of the gooier elements in their tales.
Zero-Sum, the latest collection from Joyce Carol Oates, is a grab bag of goodies from various genres
This latest volume offers an energetic point of entry as well as a strong argument for Oates's continued relevance.
31 Days of Stories 2023, Day 2: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
The story has numerous commonalities with Everil Worrell's pulp horror tale "Leonora."
Some thoughts about today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade
"If you are afraid of the ascendancy of fascism in this country – and you would be very foolish not to be right now – then you had better understand that the root issue here has to do with male supremacy and the control of women."
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 27: “Sin” by Cynthia Ozick
The ninety-four-year-old author’s story, about art and failure, is charged with typically graceful and metaphorical language.
31 Days of Stories 2021: Why read short stories?
Stories require attention and concentration and often yield their meanings only over time, or in retrospect. But the best stories reward vigilance and repeated reading.
Joyce Carol Oates on “the psyche’s deepest and most profound revelations”
In a brief survey of some core Western texts, Oates asks the key question, why do we want to experience fear in an aesthetic context?
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 13: “The Pugilist at Rest” by Thom Jones
Thom Jones’s most famous story is about one U.S. Marine before, during, and after deployment to Vietnam.
31 Days of Stories 2020: Why stories?
Short stories offer a different kind of pleasure from other forms of literature, a pleasure not curtailed by a story's relatively small size.