Joyce Carol Oates mesmerizes audience

On Wednesday, May 9, the ballroom at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the OSU campus almost filled to capacity to hear world renowned author Joyce Carol Oates. The author was recently named the first recipient of the OSU Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement and was scheduled to receive the actual award the following day. Her words, her smile and her quick wit when answering questions kept audience members mesmerized for over an hour.

Lawrence Rodgers, the executive dean of the Division of Arts and Sciences at OSU began the evening with a welcome, some special thanks and a brief description of the Stone Award. He also thanked Marjorie Sandor and Molly Brown and her staff at the OSU Foundation.

Keith Scribner, an English and Creative Writing associate professor, then had the privilege of introducing Oates. He gave a brief bio of Oates' accomplishments and some of the reasons why she was receiving the inaugural Stone Award. "Her work compels us, speaks to us like no others." He added that it is easy to get lost in Oates's words. "To read Oates is to be inhabited by her."

Oates took the podium with a rousing welcome by the audience. She spoke briefly about her writing, especially regarding the many voices she uses in her stories. "All the voices become universal voices," she said before beginning with the first short story of the night, San Quentin. 

Set in the famous California prison, the story is based partly on her own experience teaching there. The audience listened in rapt attention as Oates' wove the narrative, using two of the voices she spoke of earlier. The story had two very distinct voices- that of the teacher and that of the prisoner. She also used many descriptive analogies to move the story along.

Brutal Murder in a Public Place proved to be a rather whimsical story about a bird stuck in the Newark Airport. Oates explained that the story came to her when she was in that airport and heard a bird chirping inside the airport. After she completed the reading, she said this was another voice that she decided needed to be heard. "It's a strange story," she added.

With Scribner moderating, Oates spent the next half hour or so answering questions. She also offered up some words of wisdom. "Most passionate writing is not premeditated." She told the audience that she likes to write about common people and become the "voice of forgotten people."

One of the things I found the most interesting was how easily and quickly she was able to answer some of the questions. She also showed a lot of humor, especially when bantering back and forth with Scribner. 

Oates's successes with the printed word gives hope that books will indeed survive. The thoughts of Jeff Jarvis about killing books to reinvent them did not seem to be relevant in Oates's world. She firmly believes in sharing the written word in both her books and when she gives readings. As she was signing autographs after the reading, it was very obvious that she enjoyed the experience of interacting with readers. Would that happen if no books were being offered for autographs?