JOYCE CAROL OATES

Banks, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, died Saturday in upstate New York, his editor, Dan Halpern, told The Associated Press. Joyce Carol Oates, who referred to Banks on Twitter as a great American writer and “beloved friend of so many," said he died peacefully in his home. “Cloudsplitter” was his most ambitious novel, a 750-page narrative on John Brown and his improbable quest to rid the country of slavery. “Cloudsplitter” reads like a prequel to Banks’ contemporary works, a summoning of Hawthorne and other early influences. His books often told of absent and otherwise failing fathers and Banks’ own father, Earl Banks, was an alcoholic whom the author says beat him as a child and left him with a permanently damaged left eye.

Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel is a morbid, leering and tasteless abasement

Backstage after week 2 of “Dancing With the Stars,” Selma Blair, alongside pro partner Sasha Farber, reacts to having her “Cruel Intentions” co-star and longtime friend Sarah Michelle Gellar come support her in the ballroom. Plus, she talked about what it means to her to be inspiring people at home with her appearance on the show.

VENICE, Italy — (AP) — Andrew Dominik had been trying to make a movie about Marilyn Monroe for over a decade. The film wouldn't be a biopic, but an experiential portrait delving into the psyche of Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jeane. Then he found Ana de Armas, and, he said, the movie came alive. “The first day of filming, I went home with this sense of awe that I had the privilege of actually working with Marilyn Monroe,” Brody said. ___Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr___For more on the Venice Film Festival, visit: www.apnews.com/VeniceFilmFestivalCopyright 2022 The Associated Press.

VENICE, Italy — (AP) — The 79th edition of the Venice International Film Festival is starting to wind down, but they’ve saved one of the most anticipated films of the slate for last. “Blonde,” Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe film starring Ana de Armas, is having its world premiere Thursday night in competition. The nearly three-hour epic is based on a work of biographical fiction by Joyce Carol Oates and examines the public and private life of the Hollywood icon from her troubled childhood as Norma Jeane to her global stardom as Marilyn Monroe. The film will be playing in select theaters starting Sept. 16 before becoming available on Netflix on Sept. 23. ___Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr___For more on the Venice Film Festival, visit: www.apnews.com/VeniceFilmFestivalCopyright 2022 The Associated Press.

The 79th edition of the Venice International Film Festival is starting to wind down, but they’ve saved one of the most anticipated films of the slate for last.

A rundown of notable films coming out this fall, which range from Disney+'s “Pinocchio” adaptation to Ana de Armas playing Marilyn Monroe in the Netflix film “Blonde.”.

Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” the Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde,” Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” and Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” with Timothée Chalamet, will all have their world premieres in competition at the Venice International Film Festival this fall.

The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss the story “Zombie,” which was published in a 1994 issue of the magazine.

Andre Aciman, Colm Toibin and Rick Moody are among the authors contributing to an essay collection on the legacy of Sigmund Freud.

NEW YORK Joyce Carol Oates, Douglas Brinkley and Lauren Groff are among more than 20 writers contributing essays for a book on the legacy of Henry David Thoreau. Princeton University Press announced Monday that Now Comes Good Sailing: On Henry David Thoreau and the Meaning of Life will be published in 2021. The book's title comes from words the celebrated nature writer and social commentator reportedly spoke as he neared his death, in 1862. Others writing about Thoreau for the new book include the best-selling novelist Amor Towles, Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction writer John McPhee, travel writer Pico Iyer, and the author and columnist Rafia Zakaria.