Joyce Carol Oates attended La Milanesiana 2010 (a festival of literature, music, film, and science), where on July 8th she received the Premio Fernanda Pivano (Fernanda Pivano Award for American Literature). The award is given annually to an American author whose writing has brought outstanding contributions to society. The first award was given in 2009 to Erica Jong.
The festival web site notes that JCO’s works have “left an indelible mark on contemporary literature.”
Fernanda Pivano (1917-2009) was an essayist, translator and journalist, and the most influential popularizer of American literature and culture in Italy. She was responsible for the publication and dissemination in Italy of the authors of the Beat Generation, and continued for 50 years to alert the Italian public to talented American writers.
Some of JCO’s previous international recognitions include: the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (9 times on the longlist); the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (3 times on the longlist); and the Man Booker International Prize (2009 shortlist). JCO won France’s Prix Femina Étranger in 2005 for The Falls.
Note: information here is roughly translated from the Italian. (pdf)
Randy Souther
I'm a Reference Librarian at the University of San Francisco's Gleeson Library, and I run the Joyce Carol Oates web site, Celestial Timepiece.
Celestial Timepiece 
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