Joyce Carol Oates receives Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement

Novelist Joyce Carol Oates received the 2003 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achieve­ment, honoring her as an author who crosses boundaries of genre and form and who has given readers a rich, memorable body of work that has earned her a place among the most acclaimed authors of her generation.

The $5,000 cash award was presented on Tuesday, November 11, at a dinner at the restaurant Daniel in New York City. The presentation was made by novelist E.L. Doctorow '52, who received the same award last year. The evening, sponsored by Bloomberg, the parent company of Bloomberg News, included both live and silent auctions. More than $150,000 was raised for the Kenyon Review endowment fund.

The Kenyon Review Board of Trustees inaugurated the award in 2002 to recognize authors demonstrating superlative achievement across a career and a creative spirit surpassing mere fashion or brief commercial appeal.

"Joyce Carol Oates has appealed to a broad audience while maintaining the highest literary standards; that alone is a rare and signal achievement," says Review editor David Lynn '76. The award, he notes, honors authors who "have lifted us all by the power of their imaginations, the beauty of their art, and the courage of their uncompromising visions."

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