Awards and Honors

Individual Works

American Academy of Arts and Letters, Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award

• 1968 winner: A Garden of Earthly Delights
  
  

American Theatre Critics Association, New Play Award

• 1994 nomination: The Perfectionist
  
  

Boston Book Review, Fisk Fiction Prize

• 1996, winner: Zombie
  
  

Bram Stoker Award

• Short Fiction, 2003 nomination: "The Haunting"
• Long Fiction, 2000 nomination: "In Shock"
• Superior Achievement in a Novel, 1996 winner: Zombie
  
  

Heidemann Award for One-Act Plays

• 1990 Co-winner: "Tone Clusters"
  
  

International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award

• 2009 Longlist: The Gravediggers Daughter
• 2007 Longlist: Missing Mom
• 2006 Longlist: The Falls
• 2004 Longlist: I'll Take You There
• 2003 Longlist: Middle Age
• 2002 Longlist: Blonde
• 2000 Longlist: My Heart Laid Bare
• 1998 Longlist: We Were the Mulvaneys
• 1996 Longlist: Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

• 2005 Fiction shortlist: Mother, Missing
  
  

Los Angeles Times Book Prize

• 1992 Young Adult Fiction finalist: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
• 1987 Fiction finalist: You Must Remember This
• 1980 Fiction finalist: Bellefleur
  
  

Mademoiselle College Fiction Contest

• 1959, winner: "In the Old World"
  
  

Mystery Readers International Macavity Awards: Sue Feder Memorial, Best Historical Mystery

• 2008 finalist: The Gravedigger's Daughter

National Book Award

• 2001 finalist: Blonde
• 1990 finalist: Because It Is Bitter, And Because It Is My Heart
• 1971 finalist: Wonderland
• 1970 winner: them
  JCO's Acceptance Speech
• 1969 finalist: Expensive People
• 1968 finalist: A Garden of Earthly Delights
  
  

National Book Critics Circle Award

• 2007 fiction finalist: The Gravedigger's Daughter
• 2007 autobiography finalist: The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982
• 1992 fiction finalist: Black Water
  
  

National Magazine Awards

• 2007 nominee: Fiction, Playboy (May 2006), "Suicide Watch"
• 2006 winner: Fiction, The Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall), "Smother"
• 2006 finalist: Fiction, The Virginia Quarterly Review (Winter), "So Help Me God"
• 2006 finalist: Fiction, Zoetrope: All-Story, "High Lonesome"
• 2003 finalist: Fiction, The Georgia Review, "Three Girls"
• 2002 finalist: Fiction, Harper's Magazine, "Curly Red"
• 1993 finalist: Fiction, Playboy, "The Premonition"
• 1985 finalist: Fiction, Esquire, "Raven's Wing"
• 1983 finalist: Fiction, Esquire, "Ich Bin Ein Berliner"
• 1978 finalist: Fiction, Mademoiselle, "The Tattoo"
  
  

New York Times Notable Books of the Year

• 2006: High Lonesome
• 2005: Missing Mom
• 2004: The Falls
• 2002: I'll Take You There
• 2001: Faithless
• 2000: Blonde
• 1998: My Heart Laid Bare
• 1997: Man Crazy
• 1996: We Were The Mulvaneys
• 1995: Zombie
• 1994: What I Lived For
• 1993: Foxfire
• 1992: Black Water
• 1991: Heat; and The Rise of Life on Earth
• 1990: Because It Is Bitter And Because It Is My Heart
• 1989: American Appetites
• 1988: The Assignation
• 1987: On Boxing; and You Must Remember This
• 1986: Raven's Wing
• 1985: Solstice
• 1984: Last Days; and Mysteries of Winterthurn
• 1982: A Bloodsmoor Romance
• 1981: Angel of Light
• 1980: Bellefleur
• 1978: Son of the Morning
• 1977: Night Side
• 1976: Childwold
• 1975: The Poisoned Kiss; and The Seduction
• 1974: The Goddess
• 1973: Do With Me What You Will
• 1972: Marriages and Infidelities
• 1970: The Wheel of Love
• 1969: them
• 1968: Expensive People
• 1963: By the North Gate
  
  

Oprah's Book Club

• 2001 selection: We Were the Mulvaneys
  
  

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

• 2006 longlist: Rape: A Love Story
• 2005 longlist: The Falls
• 2002 longlist: Middle Age
  
  

PEN / Faulkner Award

• 1995 finalist: What I Lived For
  
  

Prix Femina Étranger

• 2005 winner: The Falls
  
  

Pulitzer Prize

• 2001 finalist: Blonde
• 1995 finalist: What I Lived For
• 1993 finalist: Black Water
  
  

Shirley Jackson Awards

• 2008 collection finalist: Wild Nights!

World Fantasy Awards

• 1995 Collection finalist: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque
  
  

Works Included In Award Anthologies

The Best American Essays

• 2000 : "They All Just Went Away" : (The Best American Essays of the Century)
• 1996 : "They All Just Went Away"
  
  

The Best American Mystery Stories

• 2009 : "Dear Husband,"
• 2008 : "The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters"
• 2007 : "Meadowlands"
• 2006 : "So Help Me God"
• 2004 : "Doll: A Romance of the Mississippi"
• 2003 : "The Skull"
• 2002 : "High School Sweetheart"
• 2001 : "The Girl with the Blackened Eye"
• 1999 : "Secret, Silent"
• 1998 : "Faithless"
• 1997 : "Will You Always Love Me?"
  
  

The Best American Poetry

• 1991 : "Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, 1942"
  
  

The Best American Short Plays

• 2001-2002 : When I Was a Little Girl and My Mother Didn't Want Me
• 1993-1994 : The Interview
• 1991-1992 : Tone Clusters
  
  

The Best American Short Stories

• 2005 : "The Cousins"
• 1996 : "Ghost Girls"
• 1992 : "Is Laughter Contagious?"
• 1991 : "American, Abroad"
• 1985 : "Raven's Wing"
• 1984 : "Nairobi"
• 1982 : "Theft"
• 1981 : "Presque Isle"
• 1978 : "The Translation"
• 1977 : "Gay"
• 1973 : "Silkie"
• 1970 : "How I Contemplated the World From the Detroit House of Correction, and Began My Life Over Again"
• 1969 : "By the River"
• 1967 : "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (This volume dedicated to Joyce Carol Oates)
• 1965 : "First Views of the Enemy"
• 1964 : "Upon the Sweeping Flood"
• 1963 : "The Fine White Mist of Winter
  
  

The Best Little Magazine Fiction

• 1971 : "Through the Looking Glass"
• 1970 : "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters"
  
  

Best Mystery and Suspense Stories

• 1993 : "The Model"
  
  

Horror: The Best of the Year

• 2007 : "Babysitter"
  
  

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror

• 15th (2004) : "The Haunting"
  
  

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

• Twenty-first Annual Collection, 2008 : "Valentine, July Heat Wave"
• Twentieth Annual Collection, 2007 : "Landfill"
• Eighteenth Annual Collection, 2005 : "Stripping"
• Eleventh Annual Collection, 1998 : "The Sky-Blue Ball"
• Ninth Annual Collection, 1996 : ""
• Eighth Annual Collection, 1995 : "Brothers"
• Sixth Annual Collection, 1993 : "Martyrdom"
• Fourth Annual Collection, 1991 : "Ladies and Gentlemen:"
• Third Annual Collection, 1990 : "Family"
• First Annual Collection, 1988 : "Haunted"
  
  

Prize Stories: The O Henry Awards

• 2001 : "The Girl with the Blackened Eye"
• 1996 : "Mark of Satan"
• 1995 : "You Petted Me, and I Followed You Home"
• 1993 : "Goose-Girl"
• 1992 : "Why Don't You Come Live With Me It's Time"
• 1991 : "The Swimmers"
• 1990 : "Heat"
• 1989 : 2ND PRIZE : "House Hunting"
• 1988 : "Yarrow"
• 1987 : "Ancient Airs, Voices"
• 1986 : SPECIAL AWARD FOR CONTINUING ACHIEVEMENT : "Master Race"
• 1985 : "The Seasons"
• 1983 : 2ND PRIZE : "My Warszawa"
• 1982 : "The Man Whom Women Adored"
• 1981 : "Mutilated Woman"
• 1979 : "In the Autumn of the Year"
• 1978 : "The Tattoo"
• 1976 : "Blood-Swollen Landscape"
• 1973 : 1ST PRIZE : "The Dead"
• 1972 : 2ND PRIZE : "Saul Bird Says: Relate! Communicate! Liberate!"
• 1971 : "The Children"
• 1970 : SPECIAL AWARD FOR CONTINUING ACHIEVEMENT: "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters"
  "How I Contemplated the World From the Detroit House of Correction, and Began My Life Over Again"
  
  "It is a great pleasure to announce that the publishers of the series have established this year a new prize in connection with it: a Special Award for continuing achievement by a writer of established reputation. The award will be made at the discretion of the editor at such times as seem appropriate; and I am very pleased that it should be given for the first time to Joyce Carol Oates, a gifted writer whose achievements and reputation are a part of the history of the American short story in the 1960s." —William Abrahams
• 1969 : 2ND PRIZE : "Accomplished Desires"
• 1968 : "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
• 1967 : 1ST PRIZE : "In the Region of Ice"
• 1965 : "First Views of the Enemy"
• 1964 : "Stigmata"
• 1963 : "The Fine White Mist of Winter"
  
  

The Pushcart Prize

• XXXII : "Nowhere" (fiction)
• XXVIII : "Three Girls" (fiction)
• XXVII : "The Instructor" (fiction)
• XXV : "The Sharpshooter" (fiction)
• XXIII : "Faithless" (fiction)
• XX : "The Undesirable Table" (fiction)
• XVI : "The Hair" (fiction)
• XIV : "Party" (fiction)
• XII : "Against Nature" (nonfiction)
• VIII : "Notes on Failure" (nonfiction)
• VII : "Detente" (fiction)
• I : "The Halucination" (fiction)
  
  

Personal and Achievement Awards

• 2009 National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award
  
  
• 2009 Syracuse University George Arents Award for Excellence in Letters
  
  
• 2009 National Arts Club Medal of Honor in Literature
  
  
• 2009 Man Booker International Prize: shortlist
  
  
• 2008 Mary McCarthy Award, given by Bard College in recognition of engagement in the public sphere by an intellectual, artist, or writer.
  
  
• 2007 Humanist of the Year Award, American Humanist Association
  
  
• 2006 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for Lifetime Achievement
  
  
• 2005 Thomas Cooper Medal for Distinction in the Arts & Sciences, University of South Carolina
• 
  2004 Fairfax Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts
  
  
• 2003 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement
  
  
• 2003 Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service (Literature)
  
  
• 2002 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement
  
  
• 2002 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award
  
  
• 1998 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literature; administered by the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
  
  
• 1996 PEN / Malamud Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Short Story
  
  
• 1994 Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement
  
  
• 1990 Bobst Award for Lifetime Achievement in Fiction
  
  
• 1990 Alan Swallow Award for fiction
  
  
• 1990 Rhea Award for the short story
  
  
• 1988 St. Louis Literary Award
  
  
• 1975 Lotos Club Award of Merit
  
  
• 1967 Guggenheim fellowship
  
  
• 1966, 1968 National Endowment for the Arts grants
  
  
• 1956 Scholastic Art & Writing Award
  
  

• 2007 Honorary Degree from Brandeis University
  
  
• 2006 Honorary Degree from Mount Holyoke College: Doctor of Humane Letters
  
  
• 2006 Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters, Bucknell University
  
  
• 2000 Honorary Degree from Syracuse University: Doctor of Letters
  
  
• 2000 Honorary Doctorate Degree from Northwestern University
  
  
• 1999 Honorary Degree from Lawrence University: Doctor of Letters
  
  
• 1997 Honorary Degree from Rutgers University: Doctor of Humane Letters
  
  
• 1992 Honorary Degree from the University of Michigan: Doctor of Humane Letters
  
  
• 1985 Honorary Degree from the Univeristy of Wisconsin - Madison: Doctor of Letters