Crystal Hurdle
August 18th, 2026
With Billie Eilish starring in Sarah Polley’s forthcoming adaptation of The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath is returning to popular prominence. Vancouver poet Crystal Hurdle, however, never really left her. In Syl-Lo-Therapy (Guernica $22.95), she pairs the oft-bedevilled author with Nabokov’s troublesome fictional adolescent, Lolita Haze. The two “react, redact, reclaim” their stories through poetry, biography, art, sexuality, fashion, food and bibliotherapy (the use of books to help people work through emotional or psychological difficulties). Syl-Lo-Therapy is also a literary jape: Hurdle commits Plath and Haze to therapy so they can examine and reclaim the narratives imposed upon them. 9781778490422
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