“I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily.”

American writer

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Since her first book appeared in 1963, she has published 58 novels, along with plays, novellas, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her work has received wide recognition. Her novel Them won the National Book Award in 1969, and Black Water, What I Lived For, Blonde, and the short story collection Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has also received two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2019.