Joyce Carol Oates

Frank Wilson from Books, Inq seems to be the champion of my literary challenges. Is there a famous author he wouldn't be able to get?

Just to fill in those who may have been baffled by the five clues.

Rosamond : this is the pseudonym that Oates used to publish a few suspense novels - Rosamond Smith.

Mademoiselle : she won the coveted Mademoiselle fiction contest in her younger years, while studying at Syracuse University.

Elwood : this is Richard Elwood, the 18-year-old who features in her book Expensive People, published in 1968.

Princeton : she's been living here since 1978, and has been closely involved in the creative writing programme at Princeton University.

Lockport : this is where she was born, in the countryside outside New York.

Oates is one of the most prolific writers in America, having successfully crossed many different genres. She is a kind of literature missionary, wanting the beautiful power of words and stories to reach every corner of the globe. I love the experimental style that she so easily brings to the masses. She is a master at using the first person, but equally at home with something more multi-layered. The subjects and the ideas are often daring and a bit challenging, but she knows how to keep people in her universe.

I love the quote by another American writer - Henry James - that is said to be attached to the wall above her desk:

"We work in the dark. We do what we can. We give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."

What more can one say?