Joyce Carol Oates appearances

[dd...@bellsouth.net]

Is there anything online about where Joyce Carol Oates will make
appearances as a speaker?

[James Will]

http://jco.usfca.edu/
 
> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:39:13 -0700
> Subject: [JCO:582] Joyce Carol Oates appearances
> From: dd...@bellsouth.net
> To: tonecl...@googlegroups.com

[Carol Kean]

When JCO came to University of Northern Iowa to speak, 15 or 18 or so
years ago, talk was, she didn't earn her large fee. She spoke five
minutes, maybe, and said nothing. Huge disappointment to her fans. I
wonder what was up with that.... if it was an isolated incident, or
if her appearances are often a disappointment?

><http://jco.usfca.edu/>http://jco.usfca.edu/

[Eric Anderson]

I've seen JCO speak at a few different venues and listened to numerous recorded interviews/discussions at bookstores and universities. She's always struck me as being very generous and giving in terms of reading her work aloud and welcoming questions - especially detailed/in-depth questions. However, she doesn't seem to be one to waste time if she feels like people aren't engaged or if the interviewer is a bad one. For instance, in Don Swaim's 1990 interview (which you can listen to here: http://wiredforbooks.org/joycecaroloates/) he asks her a number of inane questions unrelated to her work and doesn't seem to listen properly to her responses. He seems nice enough, but not entirely engaged. She still manages to give interesting answers though. I listened to him interviewing Susan Sontag as well and she became quite cross with him for flat out not paying attention to what she was saying.
 
Of course, JCO might have also just been in a bad mood on the speaking engagement you are referring to or there might have been a pressing engagement/emergency which she had to attend to. These things happen. I'd guess that your experience was probably atypical. So if you have the opportunity to see her again, I'd recommend it.
 
Eric 
 
 
> Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:18:55 -0500
> To: tonecl...@googlegroups.com
> From: kean...@inabc.net
> Subject: [JCO:584] Joyce Carol Oates appearances

[Aaron Henton]

I saw JCO at the University of Missouri-Columbia a few years ago, and it was a great experience.  She spoke, read, and answered questions for about an hour, then signed books and posed for pictures for the attendees.  She was very entertaining, witty, and generous throughout the evening. --- On Wed, 10/28/09, Eric Anderson <erick...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Oehling, Rick]

I hosted events at a bookstore for seven years so I've seen it all. Staggering rudeness to saintly patience. I never hosted an event with Oates but I have been to three events where she was the featured speaker. She was always very polite and thoughtful. However, she doesn't make the desperate effort to charm everyone that certain writers attempt. I like that self-possession. The most enduring writers I have met seem to have that quality of polite reserve. "What I really want to say is in the book," this seems to say to the audience, "and not in this event."
Rick
________________________________
From: tonecl...@googlegroups.com [tonecl...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Henton [way2many...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:33 AM
To: tonecl...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [JCO:586] Re: Joyce Carol Oates appearances

[Max Alberts]

I might as well chime in, too. She is gracious and has a sense of humor that's dry as flint--which is what I suspect is at the root of some people's feelings of having been insulted. On a similar note, her dear friend Joan Didion has the same kind of graciousness--I've seen her sit for hours autographing and inscribing books. To paraphrase Didion, she and Oates are both what used to be called ladies.

--- On Wed, 10/28/09, Oehling, Rick <oehl...@uww.edu> wrote:

[Carol Kean]

As I'd suspected, the Iowa appearance was an exception, not the rule.
Too bad. --It wasn't an interview, but a lecture, so we can't blame
an annoying interviewer. Wish I'd gotten to meet her. She's one of
my all-time most-favorite 20thC writers.