Anne Sexton (1928-74) was among the most daring of New England's confessional poets. Long after her death, the "confessional" label has prevented readers and critics from appreciating the full range of Sexton's poetic achievement. Sexton: Selected Criticism cracks open the critical bell jar surrounding Sexton to reveal a lively, ongoing conversation among scholars about the enduring popularity and significance of this Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet. Offering original and provocative ways to read her work, sixteen leading authorities on Sexton approach her writing from feminist, psychoanalytic, and biographical perspectives.