Paula Bernat Bennett

The Palace-Burner

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In this first episode, we speak with pioneering Piatt scholar Paula Bernat Bennett. In 2001, Paula published the first university-press edition of Sarah’s work.  Paula talks about how she came to find Sarah; why Sarah’s voice stood out; social expectations for woman poets; and Sarah and Emily Dickinson as contemporaries. Paula chose her edition’s title, Palace-Burner, from Sarah’s poem about women’s role in the violent social unrest of the 1871 Paris Commune.  It became her pithy phrase for Sarah herself–and her insistent challenges to gender norms.

Interview date: September 9, 2017

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Scholar Adventures

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In this episode, we speak with Pamela Kincheloe, who began working on Sarah while she was still in graduate school and serving as research assistant to Piatt scholar Paula Bennett.  Pamela tells us about what it was like doing groundbreaking detective work as a graduate student; about her dissertation research on Piatt; her experiences doing archival research; and her time in Ireland researching the places behind Sarah’s poems.

Interview date: April 28, 2021

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