Joyce Carol Oates, author of “Blonde,” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, recorded May 3, 2000 in the KPFA studios.
Joyce Carol Oates is one of American’s greatest writers, and one of its most prolific. Over a career that spans nearly sixty years, according to Wikipedia she’s written 58 novels, and according to Good Reads, has had 116 books published. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction five times and has been nominated and won many other literary awards. Her most recent novel is Babysitter, release date August 23, 2022.
Among her best known works, and perhaps her magnum opus, is Blonde, one of Pulitzer finalists and a nominee for the National Book Award. This epic novel from 2000 is a retelling of the life of Marilyn Monroe, and is soon to be a motion picture starring Ana De Armas.
On May 3, 2000, Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff interviewed Joyce Carol Oates about Blonde, and about her career. This wide-ranging conversation was one of the last of the Cover to Cover (pre-Bookwaves) interviews recorded on analog tape, and has not been heard in twenty years. Digitized and edited by Richard Wolinsky in August, 2022.