Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938)

     Born in Lockport, New York, a famous American writer Joyce Oates started to write her novels and short stories in high school using a typewriter - a present from her grandmother. Her works were firstly published under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith.

     Oates published about fifty novels, thirty collections of short stories, eight books of poetry, eight books of plays, a lot of essays and critical articles. Three novels made Joyce Oates the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. They are: "Black Water" (1992), "What I Lived For" (1994) and "Blonde" (2000). For her productive literary work she also received the Malamud Award for a lifetime of literary achievement in 1996.

     The short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" was first published in the journal "Epoch" in 1966 and was included in the short-story collection "The Wheel of Love". It is one of the famous Oates' works and some critics consider it a real classic. As the writer said, the prototype of the main hero is a serial killer Charles Schmid who was chasing for teenager girls in 1960s. In the story a female character Connie struggles from the violence and prosecution of Arnold Friend. 

    In 1988 the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" was adopted into a popular film "Smooth Talk".