Prolific author and popular as only very few are, she explores various narrative forms alternating between short story fiction and short story screenplays, essays on boxing and children’s writings.
She won the National Book Award (1970), the PEN / Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction (1996), in Italy the Premio Fernanda Pivano (2010) and in 2013 the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection.
In her works, she explores perceptively the contradictions of contemporary society, paying attention to social events during the period of McCarthyism in America (1950-1965).
Her latest novel, The Sacrifice, has not yet been published in Italy.
She lives in Princeton, where she teaches Creative Writing at University under the title of Roger S. Berlind Professor in Humanities. Oates has also written several books under the pseudonym of Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.