University, public libraries collaborate on Joyce Carol Oates display

University, public libraries collaborate on Joyce Carol Oates displaySeptember 27, 2006Mary Beth Hintonmbhinton@syr.edu

Author Joyce Carol Oates ’60 will be the first speaker in the 2006-07 Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m. The speaker series is sponsored by the Friends of the Central Library. To celebrate the occasion, SU’s library has loaned a selection of materials from its Joyce Carol Oates collection to the Central Library for display in the entry level of the Central Library until Oct. 31.

The papers of this extraordinarily prolific author reside in the SU Library’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). The library began acquiring Oates’ papers in 1989. The correspondence, reflecting nearly a half century of American intellectual life, includes the letters of such literary luminaries as Russell Banks, Richard Ford, Gail Godwin, Norman Mailer, Cynthia Ozick and John Updike. Oates’ writings encompass nearly every format and genre and include essays, librettos, novels, poems, reviews, short stories, and stage and screenplays. Her oeuvre includes art and literary criticism; mainstream fiction; detective novels; ghost, horror and suspense stories; and children’s and young adult literature.

The display in the Central Library will demonstrate the range of her writing and, through translation, its far-reaching impact: Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. The display will include foreign-language editions of “Blonde: A Novel” (Ecco, 2000), about Marilyn Monroe.

For further information about the display, contact Janet Park at 435-1878.