The Unexpected

By Joyce Carol Oates

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“Thank you for the honor. I am very—honored.” You have been instructed to remove the clumsy black mortarboard at this point in the commencement ceremony. Now you incline your head so that a red ribbon bearing a brass medallion inscribed with the Latin phrase vincit omnia veritas can be looped around your neck. Then a royal-blue velvet doctoral hood with white satin trim is also lowered over your head and secured in place around your shoulders with a snap. A rotund little man identified as the president of the college congratulates you, shakes your hand vigorously. You are left alone

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Joyce Carol Oates , author most recently of the novel Hazards of Time Travel, is the 2019 recipient of the Jerusalem Prize for Literature.

More from Joyce Carol Oates:

Story — From the October 2016 issue

The Quiet Car

Story — From the November 2013 issue

Lovely, Dark, Deep

Fiction — From the December 2011 issue

The good Samaritan

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