Magdalene College is proud to unveil the first portrait of a female Fellow, Professor Helen Vendler (1994), in Hall. Professor Vendler was Parnell Fellow at Magdalene from 1994 to 1995 and was elected as an Honorary Fellow in 1997. Daniel Mulhall margaret kelleher magd.cam.ac.uk/news/new-portr…

One of my biggest regrets is not taking a class with Helen Vendler at Harvard. Still, I learned so much from her critical works on Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney. Her books taught me how to read poems.

I’ll be speaking this Saturday at the Montclair Literary Festival about the relationship between truth and fiction in Plath’s work and (maybe) my own forthcoming novel, The Scrapbook, based partly on my grandfather’s WW2 experience. succeed2gether.org/april27-msu/

Nice to see Red Comet on today’s NYTBR Best Books since 2000 list nytimes.com/interactive/20…

It’s official. Thanks Publisher’s Marketplace

Thank you, Mark!

News! The Scrapbook will be published in June 2025

“The Scrapbook is a sunlit, sleek and compelling novel that reminded me of the work of Annie Ernaux and Deborah Levy, a gripping tale of first love, laced with a backstory of dark family legacies and historical conscience. I read it in one unnerving gulp.” thebookseller.com/rights/jonatha…

The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath now has a cover on Amazon.co.uk: amazon.co.uk/Collected-Pros… #sylviaplath

Thank you, Helen!

Coming this fall!

We are concerned about reports that a number of publishers, including Taylor & Francis (Routledge), Wiley, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press... [1/4]

How exciting is this?!

I’m delighted that my wee book on Sylvia Plath, published by Oxford University Press, is out this week in the UK. Coming to the US in November.

First day of my fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the NYPL, where I’ll be working on my biography of Anne Sexton in Sally Rooney’s old office. #annesexton NY Public Library

The complete edition of Sylvia Plath’s prose, including much unpublished and previously uncollected material, is out on 12 September. faber.co.uk/product/978057…

In Red Comet, I wrote about Hannah Gavron, an extraordinary sociologist who wrote The Captive Wife, and who died by suicide in London two years after Plath. Glad to see Gavron and Plath featured in Jessica Grose’s New York Times column today. nytimes.com/2024/09/11/opi…

Happy pub day to Peter K. Steinberg and Sylvia Plath! Every page is a reminder of Plath’s passionate dedication to her craft. I’ll have more to say about this lovely tome next month in the TLS.

Just wrapped up my first full week at the NYPL Cullman Center and I couldn’t be more grateful for the time, the space, and the brilliant company. Here are the most recent books by my fellow fellows: