The OzCo literature board has just awarded $1.94 million worth of grants – this year, a record number of writers applied, and eighty-one made the final cut. Poet Andrew Lawrence is one of those receiving an $80,000 fellowship, and for him the cash means a respite from work as “tree lopper, truck driver, stockman or teacher”:

“I feel so privileged … It's an extraordinary amount of money to be awarded to someone, especially someone who writes poetry,” said Lawrence, 45, shooing the chooks out of his Mount Wellington cottage in Hobart.

It's Hammer Time.

Actually, it's not. Sorry to get your hopes up like that. But it could be Plath Time, 'cause the kids are bug-crazy for Plath. Bug-crazy, I tell you. For starters, Sylvia Plath's 70th birthday has recently given rise to a literary symposium, an exhibition, and a concert featuring her Ariel poems.

As if that weren't enough hubbub, Frieda Hughes (daughter of Sylvia and Ted Hughes) has accused her stepmother of withholding her share of royalties from Hughes' books. Also, the people of Heptonstall, West Yorks – where Plath is buried – are seeking financial help from the BBC to maintain her headstone, which is a regular target for vandals.

See? Crazy. Like a bug.

And finally, let's not forget the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow, whose Cambridge bicycle rides – dressed as Plath for an upcoming biopic – have been stopping traffic, apparently. (Also, McDonalds are bringing out a new McPlath Burger; paleontologists have christened a new dinosaur Plathosaurus; and I am significantly less funny than I might have hoped. Oh well.)