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Links reviews, etc. - week ending 31 January 2009

Catherine Bowman's long awaited book of poems, The Plath Cabinet, will be published on 1 April 2009 by Four Way Books. Bowman's "Plath" poems have appeared in print in various journals, and she's read them at readings, perhaps most notably at the Sylvia Plath 75th Year Symposium at Oxford. Come 1 April, we'll be able to see them all. The marketing blurb for this title reads, "Part homage, part exploration, The Plath Cabinet offers a new window onto Sylvia Plath's world, from her hand-made dolls and her passport to a preserved lock of her hair. The Plath Cabinet is not simply an unparalleled biography: it is a memoir in poems, telling the story of Bowman's relationship to Plath and to poetry. The Plath Cabinet is a must-read for Plath-lovers, for anyone interested in memoir and biography, and for all readers of contemporary poetry."

I'd like the thank Jim Long, author of Between Wings: Poems, for letting me know about the publication date.

Harold Bloom's newest series, "Bloom's Guides", a comprehensive research and study guide, features Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar . At $30, this is likely a title you'll find in public or academic libraries, rather than in personal libraries. Nevertheless, Bloom - whose disdain for Plath is well-documented - has done it again, and succombed(?) to the popularity of Plath. I received a review copy, which I hope to start reading shortly. Look for a review on this same, identical blog in mid-to-late February.

Larry Nevin and Jerry Pournelle have joined forces in their forthcoming Escape From Hell. The blurb on this one may prove interesting to some: "Allan Carpenter escaped from hell once but remained haunted by what he saw and endured. He has now returned, on a mission to liberate those souls unfairly tortured and confined. Partnering with the legendary poet and suicide, Sylvia Plath, Carpenter is a modern-day Christ who intends to harrow hell and free the damned. But now that he's returned to this Dantesque Inferno, can he ever again leave?" Look for it on 17 February.

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Famous Quotes of Sylvia Plath

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