This week's guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is the iconic American writer Joyce Carol Oates, discussing her book "Blonde" and its intriguing take on the life and times of Marilyn Monroe, the much-anticipated film version starring Ana de Armas, which will air on Netflix in September.

The iconography of fame is a favorite topic for Oates, and she explores the effects of fame's transformations on such figures as Marilyn Monroe, Mike Tyson, Marlon Brando, and Hemingway.

Oates also reveals aspects of her best-selling, award-winning novels such as “We Were the Mulvaneys,” “Black Water,” and “The Falls.”

Oates published her first book in 1963 and in the following 60 years has published over 70 novels, plays, novellas, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize many times, and has been awarded the National Book Award, two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Jerusalem Prize.

QUOTE: “If we had the title for Woman of Letters, Joyce Carol Oates more than anyone would be entitled to it.” -- John Updike