Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author who has 
written prose, poetry, drama, and nonfiction. She started her literary career in 1963 with the short story collection By the North Gate, and in 1970 
she received the National Book Award for the novel them. For more than 
twenty-five years Oates has been rumored to be a favorite to win the 
Nobel Prize of Literature by odds makers and critics.