The nature of literary power, who holds it, and how the biographer should understand it.

I explore why it is that Sylvia Plath never seemed to be aware of Rebecca West, a world class writer, who still has so much to say to the readers of Plath and of modern literature.

10 Maj 20207min

Why I wrote these two books and what in the world Plath and Faulkner have to do with the world around us.

2 Maj 202048min

How I began my work on Faulkner; what I mean by an intertextual biography; why Joan Crawford matters in a Faulkner biography; Faulkner as diplomat; what Faulkner to read first.

25 Apr 202016min

A two-minute podcast. Call it “The Elevator Pitch.”

17 Apr 202019min

In about twelve minutes I talk about what it was like in the last days of Sylvia Plath, how people have reacted to her death, and why I think it wasn’t all just sad.

12 Apr 202012min