“Who are you, Sylvia Plath? . . . Something shimmers out of your chasm. / Your language feels like words / trapped under my tongue / that I can’t quite spit out on my own.” (from “Owning Sylvia Plath”) Stephanie Hemphill undertook a daunting task when she set out to explore the life of Sylvia Plath through poems, including those that reflect Plath’s own work stylistically and thematically. The result is an uncommon biography and remarkable achievement. Hemphill has succeeded in not only in revealing the depth of Plath’s talent but also the arc of her illness, one that saw Sylvia move between uncontainable energy and paralyzing despair. Hemphill’s finely crafted poems share perspectives on Sylvia from a host of people in her life: mother, brother, neighbors, teachers, doctors, friends, and others. She drew from many sources—published letters, biographies, interviews—to create accessible poems of extraordinary insight, providing readers with a keen, uncompromising portrait of Plath’s life and death. The beauty of Hemphill’s poems illuminates the brilliance of her subject even as she minces neither words nor facts. Notes accompanying many of the poems provide additional factual information, while black-and-white photographs, and a wonderful author’s note detailing her research and sources (which are listed) complete this astonishing work. Teen readers who already know of Plath will revel in Hemphill’s words, while others may discover Plath through them. Many will undoubtedly be inspired to read—or reread—Plath’s own words. (Age 15 and older)

On a bleak February day in 1963 a young American poet died by her own hand, and passed into a myth that has since imprinted itself on the hearts and minds of millions. She was and is Sylvia Plath and Your Own, Sylvia is a portrait of her life, told in poems.

With photos and an extensive list of facts and sources to round out the reading experience, Your Own, Sylvia is a great curriculum companion to Plath's The Bell Jar and Ariel, a welcoming introduction for newcomers, and an unflinching valentine for the devoted.