In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Sylvia Plath, the poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Plath is perhaps best known for her published collections The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, as well as the novel The Bell Jar. Nearly twenty years after her death, Plath was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1981 for The Collected Poems.
Today we are joined by writer and educator Heather Clark. Heather is the author of three award-winning books on contemporary poetry, most recently Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, which was a New York Times Top Ten Book of 2021; a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize in biography; and the winner of the London Biographers’ Club Slightly Foxed Prize for Best First Biography. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the University of Huddersfield in the UK, and lives outside of New York City.
Clark is interviewed by Cristina Carrera, Guest Services and Operations Supervisor for the American Writers Museum.