Telling the Truth as It Comes Up: Selected Talks & Essays 1991-2018

"Once again, we encounter Notley as one the great interlocutors of the world, a dedicated advocate for what is between and beyond definition." --Tess Michaelson, Full Stop

Alice Notley, the author of more than 40 books of poetry, has delivered an expert array of discussions over the last three decades. Telling the Truth as It Comes Up: Selected Talks & Essays 1991-2018 offers a significant contribution to literature, reimagining the possibilities of writing in our time and the complicated business of how and why writers devote their lives to their craft. Whether she is writing about other poets--Ed Dorn, Allen Ginsberg, Homer, bpNichol, Douglas Oliver or William Carlos Williams--noir fiction, the First Gulf War, dreams or giving us insight into her own work, Notley's observations are original, sobering and always memorable. This collection often eschews the typical style of essay or lecture, resisting any categorization, and is consciously disobedient to academic structures in form. The results are thrilling new modes of thinking that may change the ways we read and write.
Alice Notley was born in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1945, and grew up in Needles, California. During the late '60s and early '70s she lived a traveling poet's life before settling on New York's Lower East Side. For 16 years there, she was an important force in the eclectic second generation of the so-called New York School. Notley is the author of more than 40 books of poetry, including At Night the States, the double volume Close to Me and Closer . . . (The Language of Heaven) and D?sam?re and How Spring Comes, which was a co-winner of the San Francisco Poetry Award. In 1998, Penguin published Mysteries of Small Houses, which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. In 2015 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize for lifetime achievement in poetry.

Author: Alice Notley
Publisher: Song Cave
Published: 11/15/2023
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9798987828816

About the Author
Alice Notley was born in Bisbee, Arizona and grew up in Needles, California, in the Mojave Desert. Notley is the author of more than forty books of poetry, including At Night the States (Yellow Press, 1987), the double volume CLOSE TO ME AND CLOSER . . . (THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN) AND DÉSAMÈRE, and How Spring Comes (Toothpaste Press, 1981), which was a co-winner of the San Francisco Poetry Award. Her epic poem The Descent of Alette was published by Penguin in 1996, followed by Mysteries of Small Houses (1998), which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. Notley's long poem "Disobedience" won the Griffin International Prize in 2002. In 2005 the University of Michigan Press published a book of essays on poetry, Coming After. Her own most recent books of poetry are EARLY WORKS (Fonograf Editions, 2023), THE SPEAK ANGEL SERIES (Fonograf Editions, 2023), and For the Ride (Penguin Books, 2020). Over the years Notley edited or co-edited three poetry journals: CHICAGO, SCARLET, and Gare du Nord. She is also a collagist and cover artist. In 2015 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize, for lifetime achievement in poetry.