Syl-Lo-Therapy - by Hurdle (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Ripped from the confines of their books and storied mythologies, Sylvia Plath and Nabokov's Lolita Haze react, redact, reclaim--using food, math, bees, fashion, film, literary criticism, art, sexual identity, bibliotherapy, blood jets of poetry (and more)--on their parallel anachronistic rides. Syl-Lo-Therapy combines the best of creative vision with meticulous research. A deep dive into both Sylvia Plath and Nabokov's Lolita, two books in one.

Review Quotes

Crystal Hurdle's Syl-Lo-Therapy is an antidote to polite biography and academic literary criticism. Frankly obsessive and thoroughly scholarly, Hurdle's re-creation of the lives of the real Sylvia Plath and the fictional Lolita reveals in breathless detail their victimization by patriarchal privilege and cultural psychopathy.

--Sharon Thesen, author of The Receiver, Oyama Pink Shale, and Refabulations: Selected Longer Poems

Hilarious, inventive and meticulously researched, if you too are feeling framed or disempowered, a bracing course of Crystal Hurdle's Syl-Lo-Therapy might just be the poetic pick-me-up you need.

--Cathy Stonehouse, author of Dream House

Like flourishing an array of Magic cards, Crystal Hurdle takes us into unexplored realms in the lives of the poet Sylvia Plath and the fictional (though not here) Lolita Haze. With the concreteness of a timeline comparing the two women's lives as its foundation, she creates poetic dialogues, both inner and outer, with these enigmatic souls.

--Heidi Greco, author of Flightpaths: The Lost Journals of Amelia Earhart

About the Author

Faculty Emeritus and recovering poet, Crystal Hurdle is reinventing herself in retirement by mentoring writers through the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers Union of Canada, the Canadian Artists Network, as well as teaching Creative Writing to seniors. She also crafts junk journals, paints, weaves tapestry, and writes fiction. She is author of After Ted & Sylvia, Teacher's Pets, and Sick Witch; Syl-lo-Therapy will be published in 2026. Her website is https: //crystalhurdle.ca