The worst cynicism: a belief in luck. -- Joyce Carol Oates
Keeping with writers from Upstate New York, (and my first female writer) Joyce Carol Oates is a master of prose whose breadth of work is so great that she will undoubtedly be considered one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century. She has written novels (under various pseudonyms), novellas, short stories, drama, essays, and poetry. Genres that she has covered include horror, children's fiction, young adult, Gothic and mainstream. She is also editor of the literary magazine, the Ontario Review. Not enough for you? There is the fact that she was valedictorian at Syracuse University, and she is now a professor at Princeton. With a rap sheet like that, I had to include her in my list of Thirty Authors in Thirty Days.