The Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium programme was updated today. See below. Abstracts and biographies are online now at the Symposium's website. Click the link for the "Full Programme" to download/view them.
Thursday, 25 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:30
Opening, Barbara Mossberg, Rhodes Milner Room
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath and Pathology’
Elana Ciobanu, Mary DeShazer, Ralph Didlake, Deborah Phelps
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Expressing Struggle and Pain’
Beth Martinelli, Pamela Ryan, Ghanim Samarrai, Isabella Wai
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Sexton and the Literary Market’
Luke Ferretter, Jo Gill, Melanie Waters
12:00-12:45
Welcome lunch, Rhodes
1:15-2:00
Featured artist exhibition talk, painter Kristina Zimbakova, Oxford Playhouse
1:15-2:15
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘The Bee Poems’
Georgiana Banita, Bethany Hicok
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath Family Romance’
Susan Bowers, Kara Kilfoil, Aubrey Menard, Nick Owen, Ann Walsh, Kristy Woodcock
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath in Comparison’
Abdolmajid Eskandari, Hilary Holladay, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Gary Leising, Anastasia Logotheti, Barbara Mossberg
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath Parallels with Persian and Turkish Women Writers’
Majid Avali & Raja Sekhar, Nafize Sibel Güzel, Nadide Karkiner, Leyli Jamali, Omid Varzande
2:30-3:45
Guest speakers Marianne Egeland and Pamela Norris, Rhodes Beit
Egeland ~ ‘The Use and Abuse of a Poet: The Reception of Sylvia Plath’
Norris ~ ‘Writing the Life as Fiction: Sylvia Plath and the Problem of Biography’
4:00-5:45
Featured speakers Anita Helle and Richard Larschan, Rhodes Milner
Helle ~ ‘“The Photographic Chamber of the Eye: Plath, Photography and the Post-Confessional Muse’
Larschan ~ ‘“What Mightn’t the Sea Bequeath?”: Plath’s Mythical Massachusetts’
6:00-7:00
Wine reception at Divinity School, Bodleian Library exhibition of Plath’s small press books
7:00-9:00
Reception and poetry reading at Blackwell’s Bookshop (P)
8:00-9:15
Featured playwright Elisabeth Gray’s play ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre (P)
Friday, 26 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath Profiles on-line journal 1’Bill Buckley, Kathleen Connors, Mary Nolan
10:00-11:45
Featured speakers Lynda K. Bundtzen and Tim Kendall, Rhodes Milner
Bundtzen ~ ‘Confession, Contrition, and Concealment in Ted Hughes’s Howls and Whispers’
Kendall ~ ‘Sylvia Plath and the Purpose of Poetry’
12:00-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath and Hughes Manuscripts Verso’
Helen Decker, Emma Hoare, Uta Gosmann
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Influence on Irish, African American, and Indian Writers’
Maria Johnston, Malin Pereira, Raja Sekhar
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Motherhood and Marriage’
Annie Finch, Katherine Keenan, Sondra Swedborg
1:15-2:15
Guest speaker Sarah Churchwell ~ ‘Doubletake’ ~ Rhodes Beit
2:30-4:15
Featured speakers Steven Gould Axelrod and Linda Wagner-Martin, Rhodes Milner
Axelrod ~ ‘Plath and Torture’
Wagner-Martin ~ ‘All Those Years in the Archives: A Life with Sylvia Plath’
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘“Lady Lazarus” and Suicide’
Nadia Boudidah Falfoul, Marcia Elis de Lima Françoso, Kamran Javadizadeh, Stephanie Roush
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath in Popular and Cold War Culture’
Joan Dargan, Erik Mortenson, Patrick O’Connor, Cornelia Pearsall, Nicola Presley
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘The Bell Jar’
Özlem Görümlü, Esin Kumlu, Elaine Pigeon, Janet Stallard
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘The Plath-Hughes Dialogue’
Heather Clark, Diana Conzett, Janne Stigen Drangsholt, Dianne Hunter, Terry Hunter
4:30-5:00
Suzie Hanna’s introduction to animation ‘The Girl Who Would be God’ ~ Oxford Playhouse
5:00-6:30
Hanna/Simmons animation and Lahire films ‘Edge’, ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Johnny Panic’ Top Room, Oxford Playhouse
8:00-8:30
Sarah Purcell’s introduction to Sandra Lahire films ‘Edge’, ‘Lady Lazarus’ and‘Johnny Panic’ Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
8:30-10:00
Lahire films, Hanna/Simmons animation, Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
8:00-8:30
Barbara Mossberg’s introduction to Elisabeth Gray’s play, Pilch Theatre (P)
8:30-9:45
Elisabeth Gray’s play, ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre, Oxford (P)
Saturday, 27 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath archives at Smith, Lilly & Emory’
10:00-11:30
Featured speakers Karen Kukil and Robin Peel, Rhodes Milner
Kukil ~ ‘Sylvia Plath’s Women’
Peel ~ ‘Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Publication’
11:00-12:45
Lahire and Hanna/Simmons animation, Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
11:45-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House, with Guest speaker Jillian Becker
~ 'The Secret Life of Sylvia Plath' in conversation with Ben Morgan
1:00-1:50
Featured speakers Anne Stevenson/Martin Schaetzle, Rhodes Milner
~ ‘Sylvia Plath and Ruth Beuscher’
2:00-2:50
Keynote speaker Christina Britzolakis, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath’s Dreamwork’
3:00-4:30
Featured photographer Linda Adele Goodine and Featured fibre artist Ann Dingsdale, Rhodes Milner
3:00-4:30
Guest speakers Francis McCullough and Jonathan Ellis, large Rothermere
~‘Editing Plath’
3:00-4:30
Featured and Guest poets Catherine Bowman and Crystal Hurdle, small Rothermere
Bowman’s ‘The Plath Cabinet’
Hurdle’s ‘After Ted & Sylvia: poems’
3:00-4:30
Guest artist Amanda Robins and Siall Waterbright, Rhodes Beit
~ ‘Sylvia Plath as Artistic Inspiration’
4:45-5:45
Forum, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath Profiles on-line journal 2’
Bill Buckley, Mary Nolan
4:45-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Images and Viewers of Plath’
Gail Crowther, Neslihan Ekmekçioğlu, Annika Hagström, Philippa Hawker
4:45-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath and Pedagogy’
Amanda Golden, Eusebio de Lorenzo Gomez, Kate Gray, Jason Lee
4:45-6:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath and Female/feminist Identity’
Janet Badia, Christina Belcher, Patricia Grisafi, Jessica McCort, Dorothy Wang
8:00-9:15
Elisabeth Gray’s play ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre, Oxford (P)
Sunday, 28 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Sylvia Plath Websites’
Guest speaker Peter K. Steinberg with memorial for the late Elaine Connell of Sylvia Plath Forum
10:00-11:45
Featured speakers Tracy Brain and Langdon Hammer, Rhodes Milner
Brain ~ ‘Representing Sylvia Plath’
Hammer ~ ‘Plath’s German’
12:00-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House, with Guest speaker Linda Gates
~ ‘Being an American in London 1964’
1:00-2:00
Book signing, Rhodes (P)
2:15-4:00
Featured speakers A. Alvarez and Diane Middlebrook, Rhodes Milner
Alvarez ~ ‘My friendship with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes’ in conversation with Sally Bayley
Middlebrook ~ ‘The Three Caryatids’
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Ariel’
Smita Agrawal, Bora Im, Jennifer Ryan, Chloe Stopa-Hunt
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Gender, and Self definition’
Andrew Browne, Vassilis Manoussakis, Janet McCann
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Prose’Ipsita Bhattacharyya, Irralie Doel & Peter K. Steinberg with notes of Lena Friesen
4:30-5:30
Guest speaker Judith Kroll, Rhodes Milner
~ ‘Backstory: Working on Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems (London and Court Green, 1974)’
6:00-7:30
Oxford Playhouse reception
7:30-9:30
Oxford Playhouse performance ~ ‘Sylvia Plath ~ A Celebration’ (P)
Monday, 29 October ~ Panels are free and open to the public
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
10:00-11:30
Literary/Art panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath and Visuality’
Sally Bayley, Kathleen Connors, Laure de Nervaux
10:00-11:30
Literary panel, Large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Landscapes and Descriptions’
Katherine Hazzard, Bajrang Korde, David Troupes
10:00-11:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath as Visionary’
Bill Buckley, Nephie Christodoulides, Anna Dillon, Ananya Ghoshal
11:45
Closing, Rhodes Milner
(P) public events
Open hours
Rothermere Library exhibition of Enid Mark’s ‘About Sylvia’ book of illustrated poems
Thursday, 25 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:30
Opening, Barbara Mossberg, Rhodes Milner Room
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath and Pathology’
Elana Ciobanu, Mary DeShazer, Ralph Didlake, Deborah Phelps
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Expressing Struggle and Pain’
Beth Martinelli, Pamela Ryan, Ghanim Samarrai, Isabella Wai
10:00-11:45
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Sexton and the Literary Market’
Luke Ferretter, Jo Gill, Melanie Waters
12:00-12:45
Welcome lunch, Rhodes
1:15-2:00
Featured artist exhibition talk, painter Kristina Zimbakova, Oxford Playhouse
1:15-2:15
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘The Bee Poems’
Georgiana Banita, Bethany Hicok
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath Family Romance’
Susan Bowers, Kara Kilfoil, Aubrey Menard, Nick Owen, Ann Walsh, Kristy Woodcock
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath in Comparison’
Abdolmajid Eskandari, Hilary Holladay, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Gary Leising, Anastasia Logotheti, Barbara Mossberg
1:15-3:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath Parallels with Persian and Turkish Women Writers’
Majid Avali & Raja Sekhar, Nafize Sibel Güzel, Nadide Karkiner, Leyli Jamali, Omid Varzande
2:30-3:45
Guest speakers Marianne Egeland and Pamela Norris, Rhodes Beit
Egeland ~ ‘The Use and Abuse of a Poet: The Reception of Sylvia Plath’
Norris ~ ‘Writing the Life as Fiction: Sylvia Plath and the Problem of Biography’
4:00-5:45
Featured speakers Anita Helle and Richard Larschan, Rhodes Milner
Helle ~ ‘“The Photographic Chamber of the Eye: Plath, Photography and the Post-Confessional Muse’
Larschan ~ ‘“What Mightn’t the Sea Bequeath?”: Plath’s Mythical Massachusetts’
6:00-7:00
Wine reception at Divinity School, Bodleian Library exhibition of Plath’s small press books
7:00-9:00
Reception and poetry reading at Blackwell’s Bookshop (P)
8:00-9:15
Featured playwright Elisabeth Gray’s play ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre (P)
Friday, 26 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath Profiles on-line journal 1’Bill Buckley, Kathleen Connors, Mary Nolan
10:00-11:45
Featured speakers Lynda K. Bundtzen and Tim Kendall, Rhodes Milner
Bundtzen ~ ‘Confession, Contrition, and Concealment in Ted Hughes’s Howls and Whispers’
Kendall ~ ‘Sylvia Plath and the Purpose of Poetry’
12:00-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath and Hughes Manuscripts Verso’
Helen Decker, Emma Hoare, Uta Gosmann
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Influence on Irish, African American, and Indian Writers’
Maria Johnston, Malin Pereira, Raja Sekhar
1:00-2:20
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Motherhood and Marriage’
Annie Finch, Katherine Keenan, Sondra Swedborg
1:15-2:15
Guest speaker Sarah Churchwell ~ ‘Doubletake’ ~ Rhodes Beit
2:30-4:15
Featured speakers Steven Gould Axelrod and Linda Wagner-Martin, Rhodes Milner
Axelrod ~ ‘Plath and Torture’
Wagner-Martin ~ ‘All Those Years in the Archives: A Life with Sylvia Plath’
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘“Lady Lazarus” and Suicide’
Nadia Boudidah Falfoul, Marcia Elis de Lima Françoso, Kamran Javadizadeh, Stephanie Roush
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath in Popular and Cold War Culture’
Joan Dargan, Erik Mortenson, Patrick O’Connor, Cornelia Pearsall, Nicola Presley
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘The Bell Jar’
Özlem Görümlü, Esin Kumlu, Elaine Pigeon, Janet Stallard
4:30-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘The Plath-Hughes Dialogue’
Heather Clark, Diana Conzett, Janne Stigen Drangsholt, Dianne Hunter, Terry Hunter
4:30-5:00
Suzie Hanna’s introduction to animation ‘The Girl Who Would be God’ ~ Oxford Playhouse
5:00-6:30
Hanna/Simmons animation and Lahire films ‘Edge’, ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Johnny Panic’ Top Room, Oxford Playhouse
8:00-8:30
Sarah Purcell’s introduction to Sandra Lahire films ‘Edge’, ‘Lady Lazarus’ and‘Johnny Panic’ Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
8:30-10:00
Lahire films, Hanna/Simmons animation, Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
8:00-8:30
Barbara Mossberg’s introduction to Elisabeth Gray’s play, Pilch Theatre (P)
8:30-9:45
Elisabeth Gray’s play, ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre, Oxford (P)
Saturday, 27 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath archives at Smith, Lilly & Emory’
10:00-11:30
Featured speakers Karen Kukil and Robin Peel, Rhodes Milner
Kukil ~ ‘Sylvia Plath’s Women’
Peel ~ ‘Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Publication’
11:00-12:45
Lahire and Hanna/Simmons animation, Top Room, Oxford Playhouse (P)
11:45-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House, with Guest speaker Jillian Becker
~ 'The Secret Life of Sylvia Plath' in conversation with Ben Morgan
1:00-1:50
Featured speakers Anne Stevenson/Martin Schaetzle, Rhodes Milner
~ ‘Sylvia Plath and Ruth Beuscher’
2:00-2:50
Keynote speaker Christina Britzolakis, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath’s Dreamwork’
3:00-4:30
Featured photographer Linda Adele Goodine and Featured fibre artist Ann Dingsdale, Rhodes Milner
3:00-4:30
Guest speakers Francis McCullough and Jonathan Ellis, large Rothermere
~‘Editing Plath’
3:00-4:30
Featured and Guest poets Catherine Bowman and Crystal Hurdle, small Rothermere
Bowman’s ‘The Plath Cabinet’
Hurdle’s ‘After Ted & Sylvia: poems’
3:00-4:30
Guest artist Amanda Robins and Siall Waterbright, Rhodes Beit
~ ‘Sylvia Plath as Artistic Inspiration’
4:45-5:45
Forum, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath Profiles on-line journal 2’
Bill Buckley, Mary Nolan
4:45-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Images and Viewers of Plath’
Gail Crowther, Neslihan Ekmekçioğlu, Annika Hagström, Philippa Hawker
4:45-6:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath and Pedagogy’
Amanda Golden, Eusebio de Lorenzo Gomez, Kate Gray, Jason Lee
4:45-6:45
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath and Female/feminist Identity’
Janet Badia, Christina Belcher, Patricia Grisafi, Jessica McCort, Dorothy Wang
8:00-9:15
Elisabeth Gray’s play ‘Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath’, Pilch Theatre, Oxford (P)
Sunday, 28 October
9:00-5:00
All-day registration, Rhodes House
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
9:00-9:45
Forum, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Sylvia Plath Websites’
Guest speaker Peter K. Steinberg with memorial for the late Elaine Connell of Sylvia Plath Forum
10:00-11:45
Featured speakers Tracy Brain and Langdon Hammer, Rhodes Milner
Brain ~ ‘Representing Sylvia Plath’
Hammer ~ ‘Plath’s German’
12:00-12:45
Lunch, Rhodes House, with Guest speaker Linda Gates
~ ‘Being an American in London 1964’
1:00-2:00
Book signing, Rhodes (P)
2:15-4:00
Featured speakers A. Alvarez and Diane Middlebrook, Rhodes Milner
Alvarez ~ ‘My friendship with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes’ in conversation with Sally Bayley
Middlebrook ~ ‘The Three Caryatids’
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Ariel’
Smita Agrawal, Bora Im, Jennifer Ryan, Chloe Stopa-Hunt
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath, Gender, and Self definition’
Andrew Browne, Vassilis Manoussakis, Janet McCann
4:15-5:50
Literary panel, small Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Prose’Ipsita Bhattacharyya, Irralie Doel & Peter K. Steinberg with notes of Lena Friesen
4:30-5:30
Guest speaker Judith Kroll, Rhodes Milner
~ ‘Backstory: Working on Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems (London and Court Green, 1974)’
6:00-7:30
Oxford Playhouse reception
7:30-9:30
Oxford Playhouse performance ~ ‘Sylvia Plath ~ A Celebration’ (P)
Monday, 29 October ~ Panels are free and open to the public
9:00
Continental breakfast, Rhodes House
10:00-11:30
Literary/Art panel, Rhodes Beit ~ ‘Plath and Visuality’
Sally Bayley, Kathleen Connors, Laure de Nervaux
10:00-11:30
Literary panel, Large Rothermere ~ ‘Plath’s Landscapes and Descriptions’
Katherine Hazzard, Bajrang Korde, David Troupes
10:00-11:30
Literary panel, Rhodes Milner ~ ‘Plath as Visionary’
Bill Buckley, Nephie Christodoulides, Anna Dillon, Ananya Ghoshal
11:45
Closing, Rhodes Milner
(P) public events
Open hours
Rothermere Library exhibition of Enid Mark’s ‘About Sylvia’ book of illustrated poems