John Chambers, with reader Jill Ross – The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

photo: John Chambers

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) published only one volume of poetry (The Colossus) in her lifetime, with three more published posthumously. Her Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 and her Ariel was restored in 2004. John’s talk, with readings by Jill Ross, will approach Plath’s work chronologically, focusing on a selection of her poems from the main phases of her life from 1956 when she met Ted Hughes until her death in London in 1963 after their separation. It will have the twin aims of showing the surprising range of her subject matter as well as the conscious development of her style and technical approach.