Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’s sister?

Poet Allison Funk explores the intricate family relationships of painter Vanessa Bell, sister of writer Virginia Woolf, in “From the Sketchbooks of Vanessa Bell,” the latest chapbook released by Parallel Press.

Like a painter at an easel, Funk allows rich and descriptive language to create a work of art that captures the complexities of kinship.

Born in 1879, Bell entered the Royal Academy Schools to study painting in 1901. Her portfolio includes examples of British modernism and the combination of Postimpressionism with interior design. Bell led a complicated life that included the death of a son and the flirtation of her husband with her sister, Woolf, which strained the sisters’ relationship. She exhibited work until her death in 1961.

“From the Sketchbooks of Vanessa Bell” marks the 18th chapbook release by Parallel Press, an imprint of the UW–Madison Libraries. The chapbooks are small-format literary works, usually poetry or essays.

Funk has published two books of poems, “Living at the Epicenter,” which won the Samuel French Morse Prize, and “Forms of Conversion.” The Sheep Meadow Press will publish her third full-length book in 2002. She has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the George Kent Prize from Poetry magazine, the Celia B. Wagner Prize from the Poetry Society of America and the 1995 Award for Poetry from the Society of Midland Authors. Her work was included in The Best American Poetry, 1994. Individual poems have appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, Shenandoah and other journals. Educated at Columbia University, she is professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Each Parallel Press chapbook is $10; annual subscriptions for six are $50. To order, write The Parallel Press 372 Memorial Library 728 State St. Madison, WI 53706

For information, call (608) 262-2600 or visit: http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu