Joyce Carol Oates published her first book in 1963. Since then she has published over 50 novels, as well as numerous volumes of short stories, poetry and nonfiction. She has won the National Book Award and been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize. She has also taught at Princeton since 1978, helping to start the careers of numerous young writers, or at least get a few undergraduates to pay more attention to their sentences.

And now she is coming to the Vineyard to headline the next Monday Night Special, July 30, held each week at 7 p.m. at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven and produced by the Vineyard Playhouse.

The Monday night events are special because they introduce works-in-progress and give the audience the opportunity to talk with the artists involved, perhaps even giving advice. Imagine that, giving advice to Joyce Carol Oates, something her students may not even get the chance to do.

The reading is of a play written by Ms. Oates called Emily and Joyce: Wild Nights. The play is a reworking of her book of stories published in 2008 which imagined the last days and nights of Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Henry James and Ernest Hemingway.

Tickets are $25.

Visit vineyardplayhouse.org or call 508-687-2452 for tickets and more information.