Alice Notley: The Descent of Alette

The Descent of Alette

In The Descent of Alette, Notley presents a feminist epic, a bold journey into the deeper realms. Alette, the narrator, finds herself underground, deep beneath the city, where spirits and people ride endlessly on subways, not allowed to live in the world above. Traveling deeper and deeper, she is on a journey of continual transformation, encountering a series of figures and undergoing fragmentations and metamorphoses as she seeks to confront the Tyrant and heal the world. Using a new measure, with rhythmic units indicated by quotation marks, Notley has created a “spoken” text, a rich and mesmerizing work of imagination, mystery and power.

Alice Notley

Alice Notley was born in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1945 and grew up in Needles, California, in the Mojave Desert. She was educated in the Needles public schools, Barnard College and the Writers Workshop, University of Iowa. She has written numerous books of poetry and essays has edited and co-edited books by Ted Berrigan and Douglas Oliver. She edited the magazine Chicago in the 1970s and co-edited, with Oliver, the magazines Scarlet and Gare du Nord in the 1990s. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Award, Griffin Prize, Shelley Memorial Award, Lenore Marshall Prize and Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Prize. Her latest book is Certain Magical Acts (Penguin).

Photo by Matt Valentine