Joyce Carol Oates -- 11/2007

Turnout for the November 12th event was around 300 (probably the highest in the current Writers at Rutgers series, English Dept chair Richard Miller said), with some Class of 1970 alums -- Rich Levao, Jeff Rubin (Prof, Economics at Rutgers), Donald Katz, Robert McGarvey, and Ron Levao (English prof at Rutgers), who introduced Joyce Carol Oates. JCO read from a short story that will be published in 2008; the story dealt with art, our expectations for it and for ourselves, and an Emily Dickinson robot. She also signed books for around an hour afterwards. Before the reading -- this was billed as a Writers at Rutgers event, with sponsorship from the Class of 1970 -- there was a dinner at the Rutgers Club for Class of 1970 invitees, Joyce Carol Oates, some English department faculty and students, and administrators (Barry Qualls, vice president for undergraduate education attended the dinner and the reading). Earlier in the day, Joyce Carol Oates led a small undergraduate seminar (this was sponsored by the English Dept).