Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most celebrated contemporary American authors. Her production is extremely broad and everything is holding the same high literary standard. Her more recent novels include "Middle Age: A Romance" (2001), "The Tattooed Girl" (2003), "Black Girl, White Girl" (2006), "The Gravedigger's Daughter" (2007), "My Sister, My Love" (2008) .

As her literary influences she counts Sylvia Plath, Henry David Thoreau, William Faulkner, and Bob Dylan. She says she was also influenced by Franz Kafka and especially by James Joyce, whom she feels akin to in their writing. But the most profound literary influence in her life she says has been Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", which she received as a gift when she was eight years old. It was her greatest childhood treasure.

Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16, 1938, in Lockport in the northwestern part of the State of New York, where she grew up on her parents' farm. Her literary talent was early seen and she was encouraged to continue her studies. When she was 14 she got her first typewriter and started writing stories - a writing which is still going on.

Her novels are about human relationships and disillusions and depicts American society. Common themes in her books are rural poverty, growing up as a girl, sexual exploitation, class antagonisms, power struggle, crime and sometimes the supernatural. She does not avoid life's dark sides.

Since 1978 she teaches creative writing at the Princeton University. She has been married first to literature professor Raymond Smith and, after his death in 2008, to Charles Gross, a professor of psychology. Sometimes she has written under the pseudonym Rosamund Smith.

Her marriage to Raymond Smith she describes as a coalition of like minds. "Both my husband and I are so interested in literature and we read the same books; he'll be reading a book and then I'll read it—we trade and we talk about our reading at meal times... it's a very collaborative and imaginative marriage". After his death, she said in an interview: “My marriage—my love for my husband—seems to have come first in my life, rather than my writing. Set beside his death, the future of my writing scarcely interests me at the moment."

Although many annually suggest her, she has not yet received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This is what her horoscope looks like:

Joyce Carol Oates, 16 June 1938, 00:27, EDT, Lockport, New York, USA

(Source: Astro DataBank)

That we are dealing with a writer becomes quite clear as we notice that her Sun and Mercury are both in the literary sign Gemini. There is also a strong emphasis on the Fourth House (signifying home, family and her own inner foundation), where the Sun and Mercury are, as well as on the sign of Cancer (also of home and family).

Her home's significance for her writing is evident from her own statements both about the major importance for her future writings of the childhood book "Alice in Wonderland" and also about the common interest in literature together with her spouse. The Sun in Gemini also governs the Seventh House of marriage.

The planets in the horoscope are predominantly located in the northern hemisphere, that is below the horizon. It shows that her own identity and her personal skills form the basis for her appearance in the world. To feel an inner security of her own is necessary for her to succeed in life.

The waning Full Moon in Capricorn in the Twelfth House rules the Fifth and Sixth Houses - her creativity and work routines. Pars Fortunae (the Part of Fortune) in Cancer in the Fifth House on the Sixth House cusp fits well with her own words: "I do not feel that I work very hard, or even that I 'work' at all. Writing and teaching has always for me been so rewarding that I do not consider it work in the usual sense."

Mars in the Fifth House shows a strong urge to express herself creatively and Venus in conjunction with Pluto in the Sixth House suggests something about the intensity, passion and drama the writer puts into in her daily writing. Venus rules the Third House of authorship and writing.

The Ascendant in Uranus-ruled Aquarius mirrors Joyce Carol Oates originality and unconventional personality. It also suggests that she looks upon life from a certain distance. The conjunction with Jupiter in Pisces indicates an expansive person who develops through travel, study, teaching and philosophy, a person who makes a strong impression on others and who has the ability to inspire - a natural teacher, you might say. Jupiter rules the Midheaven in Sagittarius of career and life aspirations.

The placement of the Lunar nodes is interesting because their ruling planets are Venus (the South node) and Pluto (the North node), which in their turn form a close conjunction in Cancer in the Sixth House. Moreover, they form a trine and sextile to the Lunar nodes, like the Moon herself does from the other direction - all together forming a so-called "Mystic rectangle". Interpret it, if you can!