1. Joyce Carol Oates ?

2. Brief Bio Grew up in the country outside Lockport, New York
Working class family
Scholarship to attend Syracuse; won fiction prize; moved to Wisconsin to earn MA in English; married Raymond Smith (also a writer and editor) and settled in Detroit, MI.
Taught at University of Windsor in Canada from 1968 – 1978 and published two or three books a year.
Moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1978, where she still teaches at Princeton’s creative writing program.
Sometimes uses pseudonyms (Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly) when writing non-literary works like mysteries.

3. Her Work
Nearly 50 novels; 10 or more novellas; 6 young adult books; 9 plays; 36 collections of short stories; 8 collections of poetry; 3 children’s books; 14 collections of nonfiction/memoir; and has appeared in dozens of anthologies
Awards: 2012 Bram Stoker Award, several Pushcart Prizes, winner and many time nominee of the National Book Award; 3 time finalist for Pulitzer Prize, etc.
Hard to pinpoint a particular genre for Oates, as she crosses (very successfully) most genres and schools of writing. She writes in various historical settings and across cultural boundaries.
Typically, though, Oates works to show characters who live chaotic lives that often end in bloodshed or tragedy due to either self-motivated issues or issues beyond their control. She blends realism with horror and even extreme violence.

4. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966)
Characters: Connie (15 year old protagonist); Arnold Friend (threatening, demonic, devil-like figure); Ellie (Arnold Friend’s friend); Connie’s mother; June (Connie’s sister)
Point of view: Third person limited
Themes, symbols, motifs: coming of age/quest to become independent; realty vs. fantasy world; dizziness; vehicles (Arnold’s gold car and Arnold himself as a vehicle to take Connie into adulthood); traveling/leaving/escaping; fear vs. desire; music; dreams; manipulation
Others?

5. Questions about the text
Do you think Arnold Friend is a demon or even the Devil himself?
Do you think Arnold is real or a figment of Connie’s sun-induced nightmare?
Do you sympathize or empathize with Connie’s feelings of being torn between childhood and adulthood?
What do you think will happen to Connie after she leaves with Arnold Friend?
How do you feel about this ending?
This story is based (very loosely) on some true events. Does that create another layer of eeriness?