POET

Alice Notley (1945 - )

BIOGRAPHY

Deeply influenced by the work of William Carlos Williams, Alice Notley is a poet whose verse focuses primarily on her life in New York with her first husband, the poet Ted Berrigan, and their two sons. Ann Charters of Contemporary Poets commented: "Despite her loyalty to Williams, it would appear from the evidence of her poetry that her reflections—like Emily Dickinsons—are as sharp as her observations. Notley writes poetry to express her personal voice as a contemporary wife and mother, not to promote a social agenda." Charters observed, "Her poetry reflects her intelligence, humor, and commitment to her craft, and it is perhaps strongest when she is expressing her remarkable sensitivity to the nuances of human relationships. Rather than insist on her own emotional independence as an emancipated woman in the fashion of her New York contemporaries Anne Waldman and Diane Wakowski, Notley stresses the bonds between people, savoring with great refinement the closeness and communication that result from shared feelings."

In Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Notley wrote, "lives, though obviously pleasurable and all there is to do, are rather stupid, being utterly invention and yet so dependent on how others think they ought to be lived. One's own options are few. I despise how current ways of thinking try to affirm this fact as both the only metaphysical truth and something potentially positive. I don't think it's either. My life is for poetry and for wholehearted passive resistance to the way things are. I would like to give the future something more than a desert of data, of myriad new meanings, and unbreathable air. I hate meaning . . . that's a funny thing to say! But I'm not interested in meaning, I'm interested in being right here, no veils."

CAREER

Writer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

POETRY

• 165 Meeting House Lane, "C" Press (New York), 1971.
• Phoebe Light, Big Sky (Bolinas, CA), 1973.
• Incidentals in the Day World, Angel Hair (New York), 1973.
• For Frank O'Hara's Birthday, Street Editions (Cambridge), 1976.
• Alice Ordered Me to Be Made: Poems 1975, Yellow Press (Chicago, IL), 1976.
• A Diamond Necklace, Frontward (New York), 1977.
• Songs for the Unborn Second Baby, United Artists (Lenox, MA), 1979.
• When I Was Alive, Vehicle (New York), 1980.
• Waltzing Matilda, Kulchur (New York), 1981.
• How Spring Comes, Toothpaste Press (West Branch, IA), 1981.
• (With Andrei Codrescu) Three Zero, Turning Thirty, edited by Keith and Jeff Wright, Hard Press (New York), 1982.
• Sorrento, Sherwood Press (Los Angeles), 1984.
• Margaret and Dusty, Coffee House Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1985.
• Parts of a Wedding, Unimproved Editions Press (New York), 1986.
• At Night the States, Yellow Press, 1988.
• Selected Poems of Alice Notley, Talisman House (Hoboken, NJ), 1993.
• The Descent of Alette, Penguin, 1996.
• Mysteries of Small Houses, Viking Penguin, 1998.
• Disobedience, Penguin Books (New Yorks, NY), 2001.
• (Editor) Douglas Oliver, Arrondissements, Salt Publ. (Cambridge, United Kingdom), 2003.
• Coming After: Essays on Poetry, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2005.
• (Editor, with Anselm Berrigan and Edmund Berrigan) The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2005.

PLAY

• Anne's White Glove (produced in New York, 1985), published in New American Writing, 1987.

OTHER

• Doctor Williams' Heiresses: A Lecture, Tuumba Press (Berkeley, CA), 1980.
• Tell Me Again (autobiography), Am Here (Santa Barbara, CA), 1981.
• Homer's "Art", Institute for Further Studies (Canton, NY), 1990.
• (With Douglas Oliver) The Scarlet Cabinet: A Compendium of Books, Scarlet Editions (New York), 1992.

FURTHER READINGS

BOOKS

• Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 27, Gale, 1997.
• Contemporary Poets, 6th edition, St. James Press, 1996.

PERIODICALS

• Antioch Review, spring, 1997, p. 247.
• Library Journal, July, 1985, p. 77.
• Multicultural Review, July, 1992, p. 57.
• Publishers Weekly, June 28, 1985, p. 72.
• Voice Literary Supplement, April, 1994, p. 12.