Poets & Writers Theater

“We tend to write about things that surprise us.” In this 2011 clip from a 92Y event in New York City, Joyce Carol Oates reads from and discusses the experience of writing her memoir A Widow’s Story (Ecco, 2011) with poet and essayist Henri Cole.

Watch the trailer for Blonde, a film adaptation of the best-selling 2000 historical novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and will be released on Netflix this fall.

Acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates, singer-songwriter Ben Arthur, poet and filmmaker Nick Twemlow, award-winning illustrator Roman Muradov, and dancer Sarah Fiske will present an inspired series of linked performances, followed by a conversation, led by Kevin Larimer, about the creative process and the roots of inspiration.

"There are two kinds of writing: One is very passionate and impulsive, and it can be extremely emotional. Then the other writing is more cool and maybe classical and more carefully shaped.” Joyce Carol Oates, whose memoir The Lost Landscape was published this month by Ecco, describes the different states of mind that have inspired her work.

This short film by Nick Twemlow was inspired by the poem "Too Young to Marry but Not Too Young to Die" by Joyce Carol Oates. The piece premiered at Poets & Writers Live in San Francisco on January 10, as part of the multigenre, multimedia “Inspiration Experiment” featuring Oates, singer-songwriter Ben Arthur, visual artist Roman Muradov, and dancer Sarah Fiske.

“I feel very transparent to myself. I’m more like an observer. I’m interested in what’s going on.” Joyce Carol Oates, whose most recent novel, Carthage, is published this month by Ecco, discusses her writing process, interests, and why she’s not sure she has a personality.

Prolific author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates recently appeared on the PBS NewsHour to speak with Jeffrey Brown about her new memoir, The Widow's Story (Ecco), in which she writes about her experience following the death of her husband three years ago. In this clip she discusses what she calls widowhood's "world of absurdity."