September 10, 2025
A Poetry Reading with Joyce Carol Oates
Lecturer with the Rank of Professor; Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor, Emeritus, in the Humanities; Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus, Princeton University
A Poetry Reading with Joyce Carol Oates
Lecturer with the Rank of Professor; Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor, Emeritus, in the Humanities; Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus, Princeton University
Joyce Carol Oates and Richard Trenner, introducer
Minutes of the First Meeting of the 84th Year
George Bustin presided over the meeting held on the 10th of September 2025. Frances Slade led the group in the invocation. There was a moment of silence in memory of John Bell Guthrie, an Old Guard member who died 23 August 2025. The minutes of the last meeting of the 83rd year were written by Ruth Miller and posted on the website but in the interest of time were not read at the meeting. There were 10 guests who were not introduced but who were asked to stand and were acknowledged. There was one order of business and that was a proposal that dues be raised by $25 for a total of $125 per year. The motion was made and seconded; all were in favor, none opposed. George thanked the general manager of the Nassau Club for hosting The Old Guard for several meetings this fall and urged the members to pay attention to meeting venues every week as they will change frequently.
The guests were: Katherine Kish, applying for membership and guest of Jim Hockenberry; Anne O’Neill, applying for membership and guest of Donald Light; Bonnie Parks, Lorraine Sciarra, Renata Aller, Hugh Aller, and Richard Smith, guests of Richard Trenner; Peter Reczer, applying for membership and guest of Julie Berry; and Sarah Jones, guest of Cecilia Mathews. Total attendance at this meeting was 136.
Joyce Carol Oates is the Roger S. Berling ’52 Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Creative Writing, Emerita, at Princeton University. She has been described as one of the most prolific writers in American literary history, having published works in a variety of genres that range from poetry to novels to children’s fiction to horror, to literary criticism, and memoir. She also teaches creative writing at Princeton University and advises senior theses. She has received many literary awards, including the National Book Award, and many awards and honors from Princeton University.
Ms. Oates began by saying that this was her first time to read her poetry in Princeton; she brought the first book of poetry she wrote in Princeton which is called The Time Traveler. From it she read two short poems. The first is called “Night Driving” ; she said it was about driving back to Princeton from New York on I95 with her husband, how they would take turns driving, and the feelings of peace and contentment he felt in the car in the dark that would allow him to fall asleep while she drove. The second poem is called “Waiting on Elvis,” which is set in 1956 but written many years later. The backstory to this poem is that when she and her husband traveled, they liked to stop at small restaurants and diners to eat and she would check out the local public library. In one small town in North Carolina, they stopped at a diner and she noticed an article in the newspaper that featured a local woman who was a waitress who had once waited on Elvis Presley. The article featured a photo of Elvis, and Ms. Oates thought he looked very young and handsome. The poem is written in the voice of the waitress; Elvis was a bit fresh with her, and she calls him out on his behavior and he laughingly agrees with her.
Professor Oates went on to say that Life magazine hired her to cover the heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Trevor Berbick. She noted that both she and Mike Tyson were young; he had had very little experience being interviewed and she had never interviewed anyone. Her poem is called “Undefeated Heavyweight, 20 Years Old.” In the middle of reading the poem Ms. Oates commented that her poem is complex, that at the time she wrote it Mike Tyson had never been defeated, not even knocked down, but later in his career he suffered great humiliation.
Ms. Oates went on to say that she wrote a book about boxing from the perspective of a neutral observer, as she had been taken to boxing matches when a little girl by her father. She noted this was in a pre-feminist time and she didn’t write her book as a feminist because she feels that if you are writing about a culture you don’t know, you have to approach it with respect.
Then Ms. Oates said she would read poems in the present time with her most recent book of poetry called American Melancholy. The book contains poems about being a widow and in a different stage of life.
The next poem she read was written as a response to a Holocaust poem by Paul Celan called “Death Fugue.” Her poem is called “Hate Fugue.” She followed it by a poem she said was “something lighter” called “Jubilate” about how animals make our lives bearable. Ms. Oates said that her poem is “catterel” (a term she coined), on a higher level than “doggerel.”
The last poem she read is a new poem, “Venom: A Love Poem,” about being attacked by an army of bees. Ms. Oates boasted that she was able to rhyme “kamikaze” with “bee.”
The Q and A part of the program afforded Professor Oates the opportunity to talk about her writing process. In response to a question about how she writes her poems, Ms. Oates noted that she is a “narrative” and experimental poet rather than a “musical” poet, saying that some poets hear or feel the “numbers,” meaning the beats of a particular meter, but that is not her process. She noted that “Hate Fugue” is not written in her personal voice but the voice of our times, saying “we suffer the horror and then also suffer the response to it.”
Another member asked Ms. Oates who her favorite American authors are. Professor Oates noted that she wrote her masters’ thesis on Herman Melville, so he is her favorite and she thinks that Moby Dick is the great American novel. She also mentioned Edgar Alan Poe (his stories are “purely Gothic”). Emily Dickinson is her favorite poet (her poems are “very interior and very feminine,” and she also likes Walt Whitman’s poetry, saying his poems are very “braggadocio” and “political.” Furthermore, Faulkner was very important to her as a young writer and Hemingway’s short stories were very influential; she assigns them to her students.
The final question asked if Ms. Oates ever runs out of ideas. She replied that her dream life and unconscious usually don’t fail her. Smells and other senses, especially of touch, evoke memories for her. She feels that writers and artists are patient to coax memories out of their brains, and she encourages her students to go for long walks to help these memories to come out; she keeps files of her ideas and she doesn’t think she will run out.
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Ringer
The guests were: Katherine Kish, applying for membership and guest of Jim Hockenberry; Anne O’Neill, applying for membership and guest of Donald Light; Bonnie Parks, Lorraine Sciarra, Renata Aller, Hugh Aller, and Richard Smith, guests of Richard Trenner; Peter Reczer, applying for membership and guest of Julie Berry; and Sarah Jones, guest of Cecilia Mathews. Total attendance at this meeting was 136.
Joyce Carol Oates is the Roger S. Berling ’52 Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Creative Writing, Emerita, at Princeton University. She has been described as one of the most prolific writers in American literary history, having published works in a variety of genres that range from poetry to novels to children’s fiction to horror, to literary criticism, and memoir. She also teaches creative writing at Princeton University and advises senior theses. She has received many literary awards, including the National Book Award, and many awards and honors from Princeton University.
Ms. Oates began by saying that this was her first time to read her poetry in Princeton; she brought the first book of poetry she wrote in Princeton which is called The Time Traveler. From it she read two short poems. The first is called “Night Driving” ; she said it was about driving back to Princeton from New York on I95 with her husband, how they would take turns driving, and the feelings of peace and contentment he felt in the car in the dark that would allow him to fall asleep while she drove. The second poem is called “Waiting on Elvis,” which is set in 1956 but written many years later. The backstory to this poem is that when she and her husband traveled, they liked to stop at small restaurants and diners to eat and she would check out the local public library. In one small town in North Carolina, they stopped at a diner and she noticed an article in the newspaper that featured a local woman who was a waitress who had once waited on Elvis Presley. The article featured a photo of Elvis, and Ms. Oates thought he looked very young and handsome. The poem is written in the voice of the waitress; Elvis was a bit fresh with her, and she calls him out on his behavior and he laughingly agrees with her.
Professor Oates went on to say that Life magazine hired her to cover the heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Trevor Berbick. She noted that both she and Mike Tyson were young; he had had very little experience being interviewed and she had never interviewed anyone. Her poem is called “Undefeated Heavyweight, 20 Years Old.” In the middle of reading the poem Ms. Oates commented that her poem is complex, that at the time she wrote it Mike Tyson had never been defeated, not even knocked down, but later in his career he suffered great humiliation.
Ms. Oates went on to say that she wrote a book about boxing from the perspective of a neutral observer, as she had been taken to boxing matches when a little girl by her father. She noted this was in a pre-feminist time and she didn’t write her book as a feminist because she feels that if you are writing about a culture you don’t know, you have to approach it with respect.
Then Ms. Oates said she would read poems in the present time with her most recent book of poetry called American Melancholy. The book contains poems about being a widow and in a different stage of life.
The next poem she read was written as a response to a Holocaust poem by Paul Celan called “Death Fugue.” Her poem is called “Hate Fugue.” She followed it by a poem she said was “something lighter” called “Jubilate” about how animals make our lives bearable. Ms. Oates said that her poem is “catterel” (a term she coined), on a higher level than “doggerel.”
The last poem she read is a new poem, “Venom: A Love Poem,” about being attacked by an army of bees. Ms. Oates boasted that she was able to rhyme “kamikaze” with “bee.”
The Q and A part of the program afforded Professor Oates the opportunity to talk about her writing process. In response to a question about how she writes her poems, Ms. Oates noted that she is a “narrative” and experimental poet rather than a “musical” poet, saying that some poets hear or feel the “numbers,” meaning the beats of a particular meter, but that is not her process. She noted that “Hate Fugue” is not written in her personal voice but the voice of our times, saying “we suffer the horror and then also suffer the response to it.”
Another member asked Ms. Oates who her favorite American authors are. Professor Oates noted that she wrote her masters’ thesis on Herman Melville, so he is her favorite and she thinks that Moby Dick is the great American novel. She also mentioned Edgar Alan Poe (his stories are “purely Gothic”). Emily Dickinson is her favorite poet (her poems are “very interior and very feminine,” and she also likes Walt Whitman’s poetry, saying his poems are very “braggadocio” and “political.” Furthermore, Faulkner was very important to her as a young writer and Hemingway’s short stories were very influential; she assigns them to her students.
The final question asked if Ms. Oates ever runs out of ideas. She replied that her dream life and unconscious usually don’t fail her. Smells and other senses, especially of touch, evoke memories for her. She feels that writers and artists are patient to coax memories out of their brains, and she encourages her students to go for long walks to help these memories to come out; she keeps files of her ideas and she doesn’t think she will run out.
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Ringer