A few brief items to relate today. Sylvia Plath's one-time rival, Adrienne Rich, died yesterday (28 March). Read an obituary here . Plath met Rich in April 1958 after a reading Hughes gave on the 11th  at Harvard. From her Journals , Plath wrote "...I would posthaste recover but I must hear Ted read at Harvard tomorrow (& look forward to meeting the long looked-at poetess Adrienne Cecil Rich)..." (365).  After Hughes' reading, Plath, Hughes, Rich, her husband and Marie  and Jack Sweeney had dinner out in Boston's North End at "Felicia's just off Hanover Street" (365) Felicia's was located at 145a Richmond Street (pictured here is the building in April 2010). Plath's description of the evening continues on page 369. Makes for fascinating reading. For more on Plath's Boston, please read (or re-read) Gail Crowther's " Virtually There in Boston ." There is a new book (novel) which contains within its boards "peop

Thanks to S Miles for alerting us to the following video: "The Colossus."   Per the anonymous contributor to IMDB , "The Colossus" is "a falsified account of the romance between authors Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes that ended in her death and his public disgrace. Through the words they shared with the world, The Colossus tries to uncover the emotion brimming beneath their love and its slow demise." Quite a strange little video starring Laura Jorgenson and Scout Tafoya... After watching this video, "I am none the wiser."

The deadline for submissions for Volume 5 of Plath Profies is one week from today. Submit soon! And for the love of Sylvia Plath, please follow the following when you submit: Times New Roman, 12 pt., double-spaced, MLA, nothing in the header/footer, footnotes NOT endnotes. Thank you. The claw Of the magnolia, Drunk on its own scents, Asks nothing of life.

Review of Uta Gosmann, Poetic Memory: The Forgotten Self in Plath, Howe, Hinsey, and Glück ( Fairleigh Dickinson University Press , 2012), 243 pages. $85. ISBN: 978-1-61147-036-9. Poetic memory, according to Uta Gosmann, "posits that the self is more than the compound of a person's remembered biography" (1). It "reaches beyond the accountable facts of a life toward the notion of a self that is dynamic, expansive, and full of potential" (1). "Poetic memory" is an interesting theory and one that Gosmann defines and supports throughout her text with clear expertise and mastery. Naturally I was very enthusiastic to read the Plath chapter, but I was equally as excited to dive into those on the poetry of the contemporary, living poets: Susan Howe, Ellen Hinsey, and Louise Glück. Howe and Hinsey were new to me; I had not previously read them. Glück is about the only living poet I take seriously, having an admiration and respect for her work that leav

A few things of interest to pass along today: Over on The Gay Wife , the gay wife made "Sylvia Plath's 'Tomato Soup Cake'." Call for Papers: The Ted Hughes Society Conference, Pembroke College, Cambridge University, 14th-15th September 2012 The Conference will include David Morley and other Guest Speakers. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Ecopoetics, Manuscripts / Archives / Special Collections, Collaboration, Works for Children, Nature, The Media, Sylvia Plath , The Goddess, Myth, The Classics, and Translation When you submit, please include a summary of your affiliations, research and research interests. We are seeking to publish conference proceedings in the form of a book. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 30th April 2012. Email: thetedhughessociety@gmail.com And, remember, too, please, that there will be a Sylvia Plath Symposium in October at the Indiana University, Bloomington .

Sylvia Plath served on the Press Board at Smith College in the fall and spring of her Junior year (1952-1953) and then again briefly upon her return to college from her breakdown, suicide attempt, and recovery in the spring of 1954. Did you know that during her time as Press Board correspondent, Plath wrote and had published at least 24 articles in the local newspapers? Mostly unacknowledged in the printed newspapers, the Smith College Archives holds typescripts of press releases that Plath wrote covering campus and local events. Armed with copies of these typescripts, with Plath's name typed in the top right of each press release, I searched through microfilm reels of the various Pioneer Valley newspapers, hunting for the appearances in the newspapers of these articles Plath wrote. Below is a bibliography of those journalism pieces Plath wrote. "Freshman at Smith Will Meet Local Ministers." Daily Hampshire Gazette . October 1, 1952: 9. "Freshman to Greet Past

"Three Women" by Sylvia Plath, and "Elegy for a Lady" by Arthur Miller, are going to be performed at Cleveland's Kennedy's Theatre this spring. The shows will be on Fridays and Saturdays from April 13 through April 28 and May 11 through May 26 at 8 pm. There will be one Sunday Matinee on April 29 at 3 pm. Tickets are $15. Kennedy's Theatre is located at PlayhouseSquare, 1501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH.

The deadline for Plath Profiles 5 is in one month - on 1 April 2012. Visit Plath Profiles and read the submissions page ! If you have any questions, please email either Bill Buckley or myself! Plath Profiles  is the only journal - online or in print - dedicated to the study of Sylvia Plath.