There are many possible lives we could live but the use of Plath’s fig analogy to explore this idea is not quite right.
Articles on Sylvia Plath
Displaying 1 - 20 of 22 articles
Sylvia Plath’s writing was witty, political, emotional and sharp. A substantial new collection includes more than 50 previously unpublished stories.
AI models can produce poems that rate well on certain ‘metrics’. But the event of reading poetry is not one in which we arrive at standardised outcomes.
Edwina Preston approaches Nova Weetman’s ‘generous and open’ grief memoir from a place of shared loss.
A psychiatrist explains the many ways anxiety can hinder, color or compel creativity.
Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s witty, ‘effervescent’ debut novel follows a Sylvia-Plath-loving young Malaysian-Australian writer’s journey to ‘the heart of empire’ in the UK.
Edwina Preston reflects on the lost art of hanging out – which feeds creativity – and the need to reclaim time from the pressures of productivity. She draws on new books by Jenny Odell and Sheila Liming.
Why was Susanna Kaysen really hospitalised? Her memoir Girl, Interrupted turns 30 this year. It investigates whether she was ‘mad’, or medicalised for a ‘chaotic’ life that defied gender norms.
Plath’s sublime nature poetry deserves widespread appreciation for its unfettered joy and deep attunement to the natural world.
February 11 marks 60 years since Sylvia Plath’s death. Plath remains one of the great poets of depression, but also wrote on motherhood.
Sylvia Plath left behind a complicated legacy. Contemporary writers influenced by her work must juggle inspiration with some problematic imagery – as a poetry expert explains.
Two poems that were originally excised from ‘Ariel,’ Plath’s seminal poetry collection, vividly channel the painful experience of losing an unborn child.
The U.S. suicide rate has been increasing for decades. According to a sociologist who studies suicide, depression is just one factor among many implicated social conditions.
Since 2011, Button Poetry has offered a large number of powerful poetic performances that reveal the plurality of individual stories in the United States.
For centuries, readers have written in the margins of their books to indicate admiration, disagreement or inspiration. Plath was no different.
If Swift’s new single is anything to go by, the poet and the former ‘pop princess’ have an awful lot in common.
The poet’s letters to her former therapist will be published later this year. How far is this an invasion of her privacy?
The story of Trevor Thomas.
After Jonathan Bate, in his recent biography of Ted Hughes, wrote about Hughes’ salacious sex life, a number of critics – including Janet Malcolm – were quick to pounce.
Dicken’s great anti-hero has monopolised festive literature for too long. Here are the alternative takes on the season of goodwill that you have been missing.
Top contributors
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Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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PhD Candidate, Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Fellow, McCormack Graduate School, UMass Boston
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Visiting Researcher in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University
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Principal of Janet Clarke Hall and Honorary Senior Fellow of the School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer in Criminology, The Open University
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Professor in Creative Writing (Poetry), University of East Anglia
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Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, UNSW
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Lecturer in Creative Writing, Lancaster University
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Associate Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University
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Curator, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina
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Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University
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Professor of History, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle
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Final year PhD student researching Sylvia Plath's nature poetry, University of Huddersfield
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PhD candidate in American literature, Université Paris Nanterre