New Plays

This new collection, includes three full-length plays: Bad Girls, Black Water, The Passion of Henry David Thoreau, and eight shorter pieces. Bad Girls is the story of three teenage sisters who ruin the life of the man who comes between them and their single mother; Black Water a dramatization of Oates's widely acclaimed novel of that title; and The Passion of Henry David Thoreau a portrayal of the passionate life and premature death of one of our great nineteenth-century writers. The subjects of the shorter pieces vary considerably, from a serial murder to a nightmarish visit to an adoption agency.

In a prolific and varied oeuvre that ranges over essays, plays, criticism, and several genres of fiction, Joyce Carol Oates has proved herself one of the most influential and important storytellers in the literary world.