An Inside Look at the Publication of Unknown Poems by Frost and Plath

By Tom Gresham

The editors and graduate students behind the emergence of newly discovered works by Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath will discuss unearthing and publishing the poems on March 5 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The panelists will chart the path from discovery through the recent publication and public reception of the poems during the event, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Richmond Salons of the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. They also will relate how recent technological advances have altered the landscape of literary research and publishing. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the discussion. 

The panel will feature Gregory Donovan, senior editor of Blackbird, VCU's, online journal of literature and the arts; Anna Journey, a VCU graduate student whose research led to the publication of the Plath poem, "Ennui;" Ted Genoways, editor of the University of Virginia's print journal Virginia Quarterly Review, and Robert Stilling, the Virginia graduate student who discovered the Frost poem, "War Thoughts at Home." 

The discussion is part of the year-long series, "Creating and Consuming Culture in the Digital Age," which is sponsored by the Department of English in collaboration with the School of Mass Communications and the School of the Arts. It is funded by the VCU Honors Program through its National Endowment for the Humanities Year program. 

For more information about this event and others in the series, visit http://www.creatingculture.vcu.edu or call 804-828-1331.