Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Women Writers in Photo

Hello Readers of English Muse,

I am Maggie May from Flux Capacitor, married to my love Mr. Curry with whom I have three children- Dakota, Ian and Lola. I am a novelist and poet, so I thought it fitting that my guest blog be full of photos of amazing, fascinating women writers. Let's begin with Queen Poet, Sylvia Plath, and this lovely color photo of her and her children, Frieda and Nicholas. Look at her hair, the braids! I wonder if they're real? Did they even have fake braids back then?





This is Marguriete Duras, the French novelist. I found my first of her novels in a pee smelling used book store and fell in love with her surrealist, gorgeous, engrossing style. She wrote ' The Lover ' , a novel based on her life experience that was turned into an erotic and gorgeous movie. She was a beautiful woman, with a lovely wide brimmed hat here!



I can't tell you who this is! She's the makings of many a post on my blog, my newest hero and obsession....


Anne Sexton! I remember the first time I read the Collected Works...I was in heaven. Her subject matters are nothing less than life, sex, love and death (what else is there? really-) and her poetry is so interesting, so passionate, so good to the brain. She was gorgeous and mysterious and gave readings to throngs of women who were feminists or becoming so. She inspired us and she showed us a way to self expression. She wrote a wonderful poem about women, ' Her Kind '



The glorious, brilliant Joyce Carol Oates. Ah. I remember reading ' We Were the Mulvaney's ' and feeling intimidated: Holy Hell! How could I ever hope to measure up the scope of information on human life in this novel! And so I fell in love. Her novels are a.ma.zing. She has a terrifiyingly human and tactile grasp on life, on our experiences and the ways we fail, the ways we love. I think she looks like a silent film star! Of course, this picture is from the sixties.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm my comment disappeared.

I never heard anyone mention Plath's braids! The potent psychology of her yes, braids, no. I suspect the braids were real but that husband, a true faker.

I was very young when I first discovered Sexton, and I thought *I* truly discovered her. None of my friends had any idea who she was.
Good entry, Maggie. ~Mary

ruthpclark said...

I absolutely love this post--I'm a huge Sylvia Plath fan but have never seen a photo of her! Thanks for sharing!

erin said...

Anne Sexton is my favorite of favorites.

Unknown said...

Very inspiring women. Love the post.

Micaela said...

hi maggie! cheers on this post. I instantly wrote down "The Lover"- to read and to watch.

I fell in love with this first line:

"One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me."

E said...

Love this post! I just moved to Boston, where Sexton and Plath both lived for a while. I love that about this city, I love their poetry, and I'm so glad you shared these wonderful photos!

Caroline said...

More more more! Thank you for this - female authors are not often discussed in the blog world. Would love to hear who some of your favorite female writers of today are...

Little Lovables said...

excellent post!!

Bee said...

Such good choices, Maggie May.
And a reminder to me that I need to read that Joyce Carol Oates book sitting so long on my shelf.

(The braids? 99% sure that they are a hairpiece . . . which have existed for ages.)

Unknown said...

such a great post maggie! love the colour photo of Sylvia, i've only ever seen black and white ones of her.Hx

Lola said...

Cool post, Maggie!

I'm Katie. said...

Oo, just lovely- I am thrilled with the poets I'll now be exploring X)

Julia said...

"The Lover" is one of my all time favorites!