India, Nov. 11 -- American writer Joyce Carol Oates has emerged in the margins of pop-culture skirmish to headline news after she labelled Elon Musk "uncultured," prompting the tech billionaire to respond with an allegation that she is a "lazy liar." The public spat places Oates, already renowned in literary circles, into the broader spotlight of celebrity and social-media feud.

Oates was born in Lockport, New York, and is the daughter of a tool-and-die designer and a homemaker. Oates grew up on a rural farm and attended a one-room schoolhouse before rising to become class valedictorian at Syracuse University in 1960. She later earned a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Oates published her first short-story collect...