Frances Leviston review's Drives by Leontia Flynn over at The Guardian (Buy it: UK US ). This is Flynn's second collection of poetry, the first being These Days (2004). People interested in fresh, new, wonderful, and real poetry will enjoy Flynn's work; but my reason for mentioning the book here - aside from my enjoyment of her poetry - is that the collection includes a poem titled "Sylvia Plath's Sinus Condition". Good news! I know what happened to my website! It was deleted! Fortunately, I have back-up files for it. I anticipate it will be back online before mid-September. I apologize for this downtime.

Plath's first published poem appeared on August 10, 1941, in the The Boston Herald . There are two titles often attributed to this poem: "8-Year-Old Poet" and "Poem". Plath introduces her poem with a short letter to the editor. She writes, "Dear Editor: I have written a short poem about what I see and hear on hot summer nights." The poem then somewhat famously begins, "Hear the crickets chirping / In the dewy grass." But, did you know that the four lines of Plath's "Poem" appear - in a slightly expanded version - as the second stanza of a poem entitled "My House", which Plath also wrote in 1941. There are extra words here and there, but the lines are essentially the same. In the "My House" version, the second stanza begins, "At night I hear the crickets chirp / In green and dewy grass." The autograph manuscript poems held by the Morgan Library in New York City contains two copies of "My ...

I apologize for any inconvience, but my website for Sylvia Plath went down sometime on 20 August. Hopefully it'll be up before too long...

There is a new page on A celebration, this is . The new page is an index of known works by Sylvia Plath. Listed are all poems and prose (non-fiction and fiction) that I could find. Plus, there are a couple of poems referred to in sources but otherwise unknown. The page is located in the bibliographies section and I hope that you find it useful. If you know of a work not listed, please contact me via email. The first volume of Plath Profiles was published on Sunday 10 August, 2008.* It features really wonderful essays, poems, reviews, and artwork from a widely international group of scholars. Most of the essays were presented at the Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium at Oxford in October 2007 (and/or at Smith College in April 2008), but some are original, too. One step forward... Plath Profiles deeply apologizes for any inconvenience, however, it was necessary to make some editorial changes to Barbara Mossberg's Introduction to Elizabeth Gray's Wish I Had a Sylvia P...

Lesley Mcdowell at The Independent reviews A Lover of Unreason: The Life and Tragic Death of Assia Wevill , by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev. It received five stars. Down in Adelaide, Georgia Gowell reviews The Secret Lives of Great Authors by Robert Schnakenberg, which features something on Plath. The cover of the book alone is worthy of a look. The New York International Fringe Festival is on at the moment, says The Village Voice . One piece on exhibit is Ariel View , which "is described by its creators as 'a collage of texts by and about Sylvia Plath'."

University College Dublin Archives holds the papers of Jack and Máire Sweeney . Jack Sweeney was a friend to Plath and Hughes, but his contribution to the poetry world is most known because he was a long time curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room. Sweeney was instrumental in building the audio archive at the Woodberry Poetry Room, and first asked Ted Hughes read there in late 1957. In turn, Hughes was influential in securing the first reading Plath gave on Friday, 13 June 1958. In these papers at UCD are some correspondence between Plath, Hughes and Sweeney. In addition to the correspondence, they also have two photographs. In the absence of a list online, here follows an inventory the correspondence between Sweeney, Plath and Hughes. 1. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, typed, 31 October 1957, 1 p. 2. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, 30 November 1957, 1 p. 3. Ted Hughes to Jack Sweeney, handwritten, Undated, 2 p. 4. Ted Hughes to Jack & Máire Sweeney, handwritten, 15 April 19...

The Voices and Visions videos are available online via learner.org! Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens, etc. Click here . Scroll down; requires registration but it's worth it.