Hemphill won a 2008 Printz Honor for her book , '' Your Own , Sylvia '' , a novel in verse about the poet , Sylvia Plath . In working on '' Your Own , Sylvia '' , Hemphill shared that this novel faced many challenges , one of which was surviving the " censoring gauntlet of the Plath estate , " but that she enjoyed writing about her because she loved Plath as an artist . Hemphill also felt a kinship to Plath during the time of her writing , since her marriage was ending and she was in the grips of being both overworked and depressed . She also worked in a manner similar to Plath , writing poetry every day , journaling and also writing to her mother , as Plath often did . The '' Chicago Tribune '' reviewed '' Your Own , Syliva '' , writing about the novel that " rarely is there such a striking and successful blend of literary form and subject . " '' Your Own , Sylvia '' also won the Myra Cohn Livingston Award in 2008
Printz Honor
Michael L. Printz Award
Stephanie Hemphill