Your Own Sylvia draws on Plath's writing and extensive nonfiction sources chronicling Hemphill's interpretation of Plath's life from infancy to her death by suicide at age 30. The poems are arranged chronologically and each conveys an experience in Plath's life told via the voice and perspective of family members friends doctors fellow writers etc.-as interpreted by Hemphill. Each poem is accompanied by an addendum that further explains the factual circumstances of that poem's subject.
