Alice Notley

American poet who came to prominence as a member of the second generation of the New York School of poetry—although she always denied being involved with the New York School or any specific movement in general. Notley's early work laid both formal and theoretical groundwork for several generations of poets; she was considered a pioneering voice on topics like motherhood and domestic life.

Notley's experimentation with poetic form, seen in her books 165 Meeting House Lane, When I Was Alive, The Descent of Alette, and Culture of One, ranges from a blurred line between genres, to a quotation-mark driven interpretation of the variable foot, to a full reinvention of the purpose and potential of strict rhythm and meter. She also experimented with channelling spirits of deceased loved ones, primarily men gone from her life like her father and her husband, poet Ted Berrigan, and used these conversations as topics and form on her poetry. Her poems have also been compared to Gertrude Stein, as well as her contemporary Bernadette Mayer. Mayer and Notley both used their experience as mothers and wives in their work.

In addition to poetry, Notley wrote a book of criticism (Coming After, University of Michigan, 2005), a play (Anne's White Glove—performed at the Eye & Ear Theater in 1985), a biography (Tell Me Again, Am Here, 1982), and she edited three publications, Chicago, Scarlet, and Gare du Nord, the latter two co-edited with Douglas Oliver. Notley's collage art appeared in Rudy Burckhardt's film Wayward Glimpses and her illustrations appeared on the cover of numerous books, including a few of her own. As is often written in her biographical notes, she "never tried to be anything other than a poet," and with over forty books and chapbooks and several major awards, she was one of the most prolific and lauded American poets of her day. She was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.