Diane Wood Middlebrook
Doctor of Humane Letters

Diane Wood Middlebrook is a highly acclaimed author whose most recent book is a biography about the creative partnership of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, entitled Her Husband: Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath, a Marriage, published in paperback by Penguin Books in September 2004. In an advance review, Publisher's Weekly declared that Her Husband would become "the gold standard" of books about the famous literary couple. It became an L.A. Times best seller, and is featured in A&E's Biography program on Sylvia Plath this year.

Dr. Middlebrook's previously published books include two other biographies: Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, the story of a female jazz musician who lived as a man for 50 years; and Anne Sexton: A Biography, about the American poet who was a friend of Sylvia Plath. Dr. Middlebrook's next book will be a biography of the Roman poet Ovid, to be published by Viking Press in 2008.

In 2002, Dr. Middlebrook stepped down from her position as Professor of English at Stanford University to become a full-time writer. Currently, she is collaborating with the Stanford Alumni Association to develop the Stanford Book Salon, a virtual book group and online threaded discussion.

Dr. Middlebrook has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, the Stanford Humanities Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Study Center at Bellagio. She was a founding trustee of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an interdisciplinary arts center in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Dr. Middlebrook received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and her master's degree and PhD from Yale University.