This week in our poetry news round up we look at the death of the acclaimed poet Alice Notley, and the plaque dedicated to James Withers.
Acclaimed Voice in American Poetry Dies Aged 79
The poet Alice Notley, who was regarded as one of the finest living poets from America, has died at the age of 79. Notley, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1999 died at a hospital in Paris. The cause of her death was a cerebral haemorrhage, but she was receiving treatment for ovarian cancer.
Her poetry which was considered to be probing and inspiring was fuelled by the experiences of early motherhood and the erosion of her dreams.
Born in California, the poet spent most of her literary life in New York City before moving to Paris, France where she had lived for the last 30 years.
During her lengthy career she penned over 40 books, including the 1999 Pulitzer Prize finalist entry, Mysteries of Small Houses. She was considered by many to be “one of the singular voices in contemporary American poetry.” Her works included book-length epics and historical poems making it difficult to place her in any single category for her poems. This was something she alluded to herself in her 2001 collection “Disobedience,” where she wrote she wasn’t able to go along with any single thing be it political ideology, government or even form of poetics.
Whilst she had a style of writing that was uniquely her own, she was often placed into a category with other poets including Bernadette Mayer, Anne Waldman and Ted Berrigan, who was her first husband.
When Berrigan died in 1983 at the age of 48, as a result of hepatitis that had gone without treatment, she explored the universal theme of grief in her poems. The death of her brother and also her stepdaughter also served as inspiration for much of her work at the time. This is something she often said helped to give her a great deal of freedom from what she was feeling.
Notley was one of four children. She left home to study at university where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1967 from Barnard College in NYC. She enrolled in a writer’s workshop and, although she had initially intended to write fiction, found herself drawn to poetry. Her first collection was published in 1971. She got married the following year and together with her husband was associated with the second generation of the New York School of Poets although she did not like the label, nor any of the others that she was given during her career.
Notley was married to Douglas Oliver, a British writer from 1988 until his death in 2000.
Poet Remembered with Plaque
James Withers, the Fordham poet has been remembered with a plaque on the 19th Century cottage where he lived.
Known as Poet’s Cottage and located in Fordham, the cottage was the residence of Withers from over 40 years. Although never formally educated, Withers published over 160 poems during his lifetime and also received praise from contemporary literary figures including Martin Tupper and Charles Dickens.
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