Joyce Carol Oates News

Netflix has rounded out the cast for Andrew Dominik's “Blonde” starring Ana De Armas.

SongWriter is a new podcast that explores the connections between written word and lyrical, shining light on how all art is a reaction to other art. Hosted by songwriter and novelist, Ben Arthur, the podcast features an author telling a story (both fiction and non-fiction involved) and then a musician creates a song inspired by the story and performs it. SongWriter features a dozen episodes with many of Arthur's literary crushes, including Roxane Gay, Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Orlean, Patricia Lockwood, Missy Eaves, Gary Schteyngart, Ted Leo and Jonathan Lethem.

CBS Corporation announced today a strategic partnership with PatMa Productions, a multiplatform independent production company aimed at amplifying diverse voices, led by former CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler and film/television producer Denise Di Novi. As part of the agreement, CBS has acquired an ownership stake in PatMa.

Song.Writer is a new podcast that explores the connections between written word and lyrical, shining light on how all art is a reaction to other art. Hosted by songwriter and novelist, Ben Arthur, the podcast features an author telling a story (both fiction and non-fiction involved) and then a musician creates a song inspired by the story and performs it.

SongWriter is a new podcast that explores the connections between written word and lyrical and how all art responds to other art. Hosted by songwriter and novelist, Ben Arthur, the second episode features Gary Shteyngart and Elissa LeCoque, and was also featured on this week's Acoustic Cafe broadcast. Gary Shteyngart is the bestselling author of Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story. Elissa LeCoque is a member of the Brooklyn synth band Kodacrome. At a live performance at Barnes and Noble in Union Square, Gary reads a chapter from his recent novel Lake Success about the breakdown of hedge fund manager Barry Cohen. Elissa's song is “Weak Wrists,” and is a studio recording. In other news, the paperback of Lake Success is published in June, and the book has just been optioned for a series on HBO starring Jake Gyllenhaal.  

The Gift Theatre continues its 2019 Season with the Chicago premiere of Hansol Jung's WOLF PLAY, a messy, funny and disturbing theatrical experience grappling with a wolf, a puppet, and a very prickly problem: What is a family? What do we need from them, today? Is it very different from the things humans have needed from families before?

A Red Orchid Theatre announces the addition of eight new members to the Artistic Ensemble: Karen Aldridge, Myron Elliott-Cisneros, Levi Holloway, Travis A. Knight, Jess McLeod, Sadieh Rifai, Grant Sabin, and Steve Schine. A Red Orchid also welcomes two Resident Stage Managers Stephanie Heller and Christa van Baale.

The Gift Theatre announces casting for its Chicago premiere of Hansol Jung's WOLF PLAY, a messy, funny, and disturbing theatrical experience grappling with a wolf, a puppet, and a very prickly problem: What is a family? What do we need from them, today? Is it very different from the things humans have needed from families before?

When famed Victorian explorer Melford Pumbleshire is torn to pieces by something horrible and unseen while on safari in deepest, darkest Africa, his redoubtable fiance Euphonia Riggstone must lead an expedition to put his unquiet spirit to rest. This globetrotting adventure comedy has romance, betrayal, an amnesiac ghost, perfidious cultists, and a Lovecraftian tentacle monster. Part of the Main Stage Series.

When famed Victorian explorer Melford Pumbleshire is torn to pieces by something horrible and unseen while on safari in deepest, darkest Africa, his redoubtable fianc Euphonia Riggstone must lead an expedition to put his unquiet spirit to rest. This globetrotting adventure comedy has romance, betrayal, an amnesiac ghost, perfidious cultists, and a Lovecraftian tentacle monster. Part of the Main Stage Series.

​​​​​​​RIOULT Dance NY's 2019 Spring Season will present two evenings of modern dance inspired by the poetry of T.S. Eliot, the “living master of short stories” Joyce Carol Oates, and the film work of Andrei Tarkovsky.

PEN America presents the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival: Open Secrets (May 6-12), focusing on the dissolving boundary between the public and the private in the literary, cultural, social, and political realms.  A flowering of the genres of literary memoir and personal testimony has been accompanied by increased digital avenues for story-telling, revelation, and expose before both designated and public audiences.

Renowned actor/director Bill Connington's film Charles and Mimsey Wainwright: International Spies scored a prestigious Silver Award in the Short Film category at the 2018 California Film Awards. The award dinner with top industry leaders was held in San Diego.

 Continuing its nearly two-decade tradition of bringing internationally-renowned authors and scholars to its campus, Marygrove College's Institute for Detroit Studies (IDS) will welcome Herb Boyd at its 44th Defining Detroit event on February 11, 2019.

The Drama Desk award-winning TADA! Youth Theater will present the futuristic rock musical, Odd Day Rain. In 2211, the world isn't as we know it. Following a big disaster years earlier, Aurora and her friends live outside without any adults, computers, running water… or even cellphones. Meanwhile, Claire continues life alone in the confines of her Pod run by Computer and wonders, "is there anything more out there?" What happens when Aurora goes back inside? Does Claire go outside and does she stay there? And what happens to Computer?

 "We are the new. Beyond gender. Beyond possessions. Beyond the past." Odyssey Theatre Ensemble opens its 50th anniversary season with the Los Angeles premiere of Hir, a darkly funny, shockingly absurd and endlessly surprising vision of a world in transition by MacArthur genius Taylor Mac. Bart DeLorenzo directs for a Jan. 19 opening at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A., with performances continuing through March 17.

Renowned actor Bill Connington joined mezzo soprano Samantha Hankey and pianist Brian Zeger in 'Delacroix and Music' recently performed at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for a one-night exclusive event, to a sold-out audience.

Montana-based Americana/folk singer-songwriter Martha Scanlan is set to release her fourth album, The River and The Light, on October 19, 2018 via Rock Ridge Music.  Full of moments of profound intimacy and belonging, the album hosts some of the finest writing yet from the award-winning Scanlan. Produced by her longtime musical collaborator, Jon Neufeld, and recorded at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, Oregon (where Scanlan recorded her third album), The River and The Light is a journey: there is a sense of aliveness and wonder throughout each song and throughout the album, a sense of anticipation of what awaits around the next bend.  The album will be available for pre-order starting on September 21, 2018, and fans who purchase the album at the pre-order stage can enjoy the first single, “Brother Was Dying,” as an instant-gratification track.

LOVE IS BLONDE is launching its 'Taking Marilyn's Untold Truth to Broadway' fundraiser Thursday, October 18th on www.womenyoushouldfund.com.