Host Rachel Zucker speaks with one of her most important influences and inspirations, author of more than 30 books, poet Alice Notley. They talk about a recent reading that Notley gave with Eileen Myles and Sonia Sanchez that Zucker attended, Notley’s reading and poetic styles, and how Zucker came to Notley’s work. They also discuss writing an epic, suffering, writing about family, writing through pain, communication with the dead, how Notley represents her deceased brother, poetry as the public communication of the dead, money, poverty, survivor's benefits, working for Allen Ginsberg, the dearth of women (particularly women with children) in poetry, the shock and shame of postpartum depression, self-hypnosis, the unconscious, the tyrant, Trump, fascism, the desert, and growing up in a small town. EXTRA MATERIALS FOR EPISODE 26 Books by Alice Notley Certain Magical Acts (Penguin, 2016) Benediction (Letter Machine Editions, 2015) Culture of One (Penguin, 2011) Songs and Stories of the Ghouls (Wesleyan Poetry Series, 2011) Culture of One (Penguin, 2011) Reason and Other Women (Chax Press, 2010) Grave of Light (Wesleyan University Press, 2008) In the Pines (Penguin, 2007) Alma, or The Dead Women (Granary Books, 2006) Coming After: Essays on Poetry (University of Michigan Press, 2005) Disobedience (Penguin, 2001) Mysteries of Small Houses (Penguin, 1998) The Descent of Alette (Penguin, 1996) Closer to Me & Closer…(The Language of Heaven) & Desamere (O Books, 1995) Other Books and Writers Mentioned in the Episode Alice Quinn Eileen Myles Sonia Sanchez Bob Creeley Rachel Zucker’s MOTHERs (Counterpath, 2013) Diane Wolkstein’s Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth (Harper, 1983) A Curriculum of the Soul by Jack Clarke and Al Glover (Spuyten Duyvil Publishing) Joanne Kyger Samuel Noah Kramer Kenneth Koch Allen Ginsberg Bob Rosenthal Ted Berrigan Philip Whalen Edwin Denby Anselm Berrigan Eddie Berrigan Bob Holman Sylvia Plath Jack Kerouac Other Relevant Links Bob Wilson