There are a few things that should interest you about Amber Tamblyn: she played Tibby Rollins in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, she is married to comedian and fellow actor David Cross and she is a critically acclaimed poet.
I am sure you knew the first one, you might have known the second, but I doubt you knew the last one. Amber Tamblyn is a contributing writer for the Poetry Foundation and released her third work of poetry, Dark Sparkler, last spring.
Dark Sparkler is a haunting tribute to the lives of over twenty-five actresses whose life resulted in tragedy. In her poems, Tamblyn paints portraits of young women who faced the very sharp, double-edged sword of being a young Hollywood star. In her book of poetry, Tamblyn challenges the reader to face the realities of these women’s lives, by removing the glamor and leaving the authenticity. By exploring the ghosts of these starlets, she is able to comment on our culture’s obsession with fame, beauty and youth.
This collection begins with a cautionary message to the readers: “the book you are holding in your hands will break your heart.” The forward doesn’t lie. These poems are heartbreaking, beautifully exploring the life and deaths of well-known and forgotten starlets. The book itself is also a work of art. Interwoven between the starlets, she includes pieces by artists such as David Lynch and Marilyn Manson.
“Brittney Murphy”
In an interview with Huffington Post, Tamblyn discusses her personal journey creating these poems, “The Epilogue about myself. The Epilogue are meta poems about my experiences writing poems about dead actresses. It was some of the hardest personal mining I’ve ever had to do.”
Since picking up a copy of Dark Sparkler, I find myself rereading each actress, discovering a new interpretation and feeling compelled to learn more about these women.