Joyce Carol Oates to launch latest collection in Brooklyn

Brooklyn BookBeat: Famed Author to Speak at Brooklyn Book Festival, St. Francis College

September 15, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates will speak at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 21.

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Just released Sept. 9, “Lovely, Dark, Deep” is the latest collection by literary great Joyce Carol Oates, who will speak about her book at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 21. A winner of the National Book Award and a New York Times bestselling author, Oates’ new collection offers 13 stories that unflinchingly present the dark and eerie side of humanity.

In the title story, “Lovely, Dark & Deep,” the elderly Robert Frost is visited by an unsettling young woman interviewer who seems to know a good deal more about his life than she should. In “Mastiff,” a woman and a man discover themselves in an erotic bond forged out of terror, and gratitude; in “Sex with Camel,” a 16-year-old boy accompanying his grandmother to a hospital for tests realizes how deeply he loves her, and how vulnerable such love makes him; and in “The Disappearing,” a woman fears that her husband is “disappearing” from their life together, and becomes obsessed with observing him.

The other stories, while effective as distinct narratives, share similar traits of darkness and uncertainty, rounding out the cohesive and evocative collection.

For a chance to hear the author speak in Brooklyn, visit the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 21, where Oates will speak at two panels:

“Imprisonment,” at the Borough Hall Courtroom, from 1 to 2 p.m., along with Eric Charles May (“Bedrock Faith”), Kathy Page (“Alphabet”) and moderated by Paul Morris of PEN American Center; and “Influence of the Real” at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights) at 3:30 p.m., along with Francine Prose (“Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932)”, Paul Auster (“Winter Journal”), and Hirsh Sawhney (editor, Delhi Noir).

Oates will also speak at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights (180 Remsen St.) at an event hosted by BookCourt on Oct. 10. This event begins at 7 p.m.