Poetry remains his passion, even after he was thwarted from pursuing a masters degree in the subject because of education cuts in the early 1980s. His taste in poetry now ranges from Sylvia Plath, with a collection of her works on his bedside table, to...

Reading the poems of Sylvia Plath on her 59th death anniversary on Saturday was a tough task for Venkat Krishnan as the Anna Centenary Library had a blackout. It was dark inside the reading rooms and, without airconditioning, it was uncomfortably warm...

Plath wrote in "The Bell Jar" that "if you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed." Initially, Plath's statement may reek of bitterness, but when it comes to relationships, it's quite brilliant -- and accurate. In the beginning of a...

Ela vem e vai. A cada manhã é o seu rosto que substitui a escuridão. Em mim ela afogou uma menina, e em mim uma velha Se ergue em direção a ela dia após dia, como um peixe terrível. trad. André Cardoso (in 34 LETRAS, issue 5/6, Ed. 34 Literatura and...

Happiness writes white, whereas silent Rothko red is the shade of suicide. Besides, deaths are easier to remember than birthdays, and a bad end is sexier than dying in your sleep. Suicide is a blind date with a dark stranger, a way of shouting Cut! ...

But how seriously should we take fictional tales? Can literary plots really be blueprints for our own love lives? Jack Murnighan and Maura Kelly say yes. In their book 'Much Ado About Loving,' they gather some of the love lessons offered by literary...