THE SYLVIA PLATH SYMPOSIUM AT HUNTER COLLEGE
at Roosevelt House on March 30, 2023
The event is free and open to the public.
Paul Alexander, Symposium Director
Julie Rosenberg, Student Committee Chair

For Sylvia Plath, 2023 marks the sixtieth anniversary of her death and the ninetieth anniversary of her birth year. To commemorate these anniversaries, The Sylvia Plath Symposium at Hunter College will be held at Roosevelt House on March 30 as a part of Women’s History Month. The one-day symposium will bring together some of the nation’s foremost scholars and authors to celebrate the enduring power of Sylvia Plath’s prose and poetry.

• Session One: The Work
  An overview of the poetry and prose of Sylvia Plath - 9:30-11:00 AM
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  ‍Amanda Golden The author of many articles, she is coeditor of The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sylvia Plath and coeditor with Karen V. Kukil of The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a new updated edition forthcoming from Faber & Faber.
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  ‍Vijay Seshadri He is the author of five poetry collections, including The Long Meadow, 3 Sections, and, most recently, That Was Now, This Is Then. He is the recipient of the James Laughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
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  ‍Peter K. Steinberg The author of Sylvia Plath, a biography in the Great Writers Series, he is coeditor of the two-volume Letters of Sylvia Plath and editor of The Prose of Sylvia Plath, forthcoming from Faber & Faber.
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• Session Two: Influences
  Influences on Sylvia Plath - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM
  
  ‍Susan Cheever A former columnist for Newsday where she contributed to the coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 that won the Pulitzer Prize, she has published five novels as well as a variety of nonfiction books, including cultural reportage (Drinking in America: Our Secret History), biography (E.E. Cummings: A Life) and memoir (Home Before Dark, a memoir about her father, John Cheever). She was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal.
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  ‍Heather Clark She is author of The Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes and Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, a Pulitzer Prize nominee. She is the recipient of The Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.
  
  ‍Richard Kaye A Professor of English at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center, he is editor of D.H. Lawrence Review and author of The Flirt’s Tragedy: Desire Without End in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction.
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• Session Three: Poets on Plath
  Poets respond to the work of Sylvia Plath - 2:30-4:30 PM
  
  ‍Mark Doty The author of numerous poetry collections and memoirs, including My Alexandria and Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, he is the recipient of the Whiting Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the National Book Award for Poetry.
  
  ‍Donna Masini She is author of the poetry volumes 4:30 Movie, Turning to Fiction, and That Kind of Danger, which won the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and the novel About Yvonne.
  
  ‍Honor Moore She is author of three poetry collections; her memoir, The Bishop’s Daughter, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She edited Poems from the Women’s Movement and with Alix Kates Shulman coedited Women’s Liberation: Feminist Writings That Inspired a Revolution & Still Can.
  
  ‍Eva Salzman An American who lived for years in London, she is author of The English Earthquake, Bargain with the Watchman, and Double Crossing: New and Selected Poems, all Poetry Book Society Recommendations, and coeditor of the anthology Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English.
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• KEYNOTE
  A reading of Sylvia Plath poems by Kathleen Chalfant followed by A Conversation with Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem - 6:00 PM
  
  ‍Kathleen Chalfant The acclaimed actress has appeared on television, film, and stage where her many credits include Angels in America (Tony Award nomination), Racing Demon, The Vagina Monologues, The Year of Magical Thinking, and Wit (Obie, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award).
  
  ‍Robin Morgan She has published over 20 books, including seven volumes of prize-winning poetry, and is a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Award recipient. Her latest book of poems, Dark Matter, will be followed by her new collection, Harvesting Darkness, later this year. A leading activist in global feminism and former Ms. magazine Editor-in-Chief, her Sisterhood anthologies are regarded as feminist literary cornerstones.
  
  ‍Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She has spent decades traveling in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice.
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  Student committee:
  Okwuoha Darlin
  Sarah Hunt
  Diana Lopez
  Sarah Mahraoui
  Nadia Martinez
  Grace Mckenna
  Julie Rosenberg (Student Committee Chair)
  Neil Sawhney
  Chynna Slaughter