Fonograf Editions mourns the loss of Alice Notley. Alice was and is one of the guiding lights of our press. We first released her LP, Live in Seattle, in 2017. 2023 found FE releasing her books The Speak Angel Series and Early Works.
Question (“How can a poet write from a position of disobedience?”)
Two of Swords
Question (“Because it was hard, so so hard”)
Over her long career Alice published dozens of important books, from Alice Ordered Me to be Made (1976) to Doctor Williams’ Heiresses (1980) to At Night the States (1988) to The Descent of Alette (1996) to Disobedience (2001) to In the Pines (2007) to Reason and Other Women (2010) to Benediction (2015) to Runes and Chords (2023). The list goes on and on. Alice’s primary long time publisher was Penguin and all of the books Notley published with the press are definitely worth reading. The Song Cave’s recent book Telling the Truth as It Comes Up, Selected Talks & Essays 1991-2018 is also a must read.
From FE’s founder Jeff Alessandrelli:
In correspondence, be it postal or email, Alice ended everything with love—Love, Alice. This was true when I first wrote her in 2013 (very nervous to do so—I was emailing Alice Notley!) to 2025. She was one of the best poets in the world but was the opposite of a poetry ice princess. She would tell you about the weather or growing up in Needles or, after her knee surgeries, her medical care. She was REALLY funny. A typical email send off:
“Sending you all my best! I have to try to stand up now.
love,
Alice
My partner and I had dinner with her on her 77th birthday in Portland and when I was fanning out on her she said, “I’m just a person, Jeff.”
All of her books mattered so much. Put out by Lyn Hejinian’s press Tuumba in 1980, her book/lecture Doctor Williams’ Heiresses changed poetry criticism. (It needs to be reprinted. More people need to read it.) She was a poet but of course so much more than that.
Everyone is going to miss her. For a long long time. She’s still here too.
Our hearts and thoughts go out to the many, many people who were dear to Alice, particularly her sons Anselm and Edward.RIP Alice. We will miss you.
FE
