Bellefleur Novelist is a job description for two authors: Oates (5 letters) and Joyce Carol Oates (15 letters). Oates is the pen name of American author and professor Joyce Carol Oates, who has written over 50 novels, as well as numerous short stories, plays, and essays. Her novel Bellefleur was published in 1980 and is considered one of her most successful works. It is a Gothic novel set in upstate New York and follows the lives of the Bellefleur family over three generations.