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Update to Sylvia Plath 2012 Symposium

Many of this blog's readers might be interested in an update on the Sylvia Plath 2012 Symposium to be held in October at Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana. Well, you will be satisfied by this post I hope.

Please note that abstracts to present a paper on a panel are still being accepted and will be considered through September, or until spaces are all filled. If you do not yet have your full abstract, but plan to attend, please send the topic heading asap to Kathleen Connors at plath70ATindianaDOTedu.

Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012 confirmed featured speakers to date:

Janet Badia on Ms. Magazine's contribution to Plath readership

Catherine Bowman on poetic process; use of the Plath archives

Tracy Brain on Plath and the medical world

Bill Buckley on five years of publishing Plath Profiles journal and international participants

Lynda K. Bundtzen on Plath's 1958 poems and the unconscious, the Bee Sequence poems, and "A Self to Recover" exhibition works of Linda Adele Goodine, Boris Lurie, Kristina Zimbakova, Stella Vine.

Heather Clark on Otto Plath's FBI files, Plath’s German heritage

Ross Gay on poetic process

Linda Adele Goodine on creative process and the unconscious; "Bee Asana: The Healing of Plath" video and "Seneca Honey Series" photos

Langdon Hammer on literary biography; James Merrill's use of the Ouija in poetry; Plath's German, "Daddy"

Suzie Hanna and Tim Simmons on use of the Lilly Library archives and "The Girl Who Could Be God" animation and music

Christoph Irmscher on the use of Lilly Library archives in teaching

Karen V. Kukil on the use of Smith College Plath archives in teaching; "Fever 103°" and its archival references

Peter K. Steinberg on Plath Profiles and Sylvia Plath Info online sites; Plath and The New Yorker

David Trinidad on poetic process; use of the Plath archives in poetry; Plath's biographical references in October Poems.

Panels on:

Plath and Motherhood/Maternity

Plath and nature/place

Plath and female embodiment/suffering

Plath influence on international poets

Plath and Sexton/Plath and Hughes texts

Plath and publishing/publishers

Plath and death, psychic suffering and creativity

Plath and religion

Plath and artistic identity/poetics

Plath influences from Sitwell/Dickinson

Single poems: "The Thin People"; "A Birthday Present"; "Daddy"; "Lady Lazarus"; "Ariel"

Theoretical interpretations of Ariel

Non-Ariel texts: The Bell Jar, transitional poems

Are you presenting? Are you coming to just attend? What do you think of the program thus far? More details will be posted as they become available. I plan on live blogging from the Symposium, as well as live tweeting. So if you cannot make it, I hope to be able give you a sense of what it is like for the events and panels that I attend; and I hope to possibly coordinate blog updates with fellow attendees in events and panels that I opt not to attend.

An official Symposium website will be up in the near future.

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