Abstract

This article addresses the experimental Detroit-based publisher known as the Alternative Press, which published eccentric works of art and poetry—in the form of bumper stickers and postcards, among other useful objects—between 1969 and 1999. While the Alternative Press is largely unknown to scholars, this article traces its influences on poets, including Victor Hernández Cruz, Robert Creeley, Diane di Prima, Ted Berrigan, and Alice Notley. It suggests that although these poets (and additional Press contributors) are generally grouped according to other geographical or formal tendencies, involvement with the Alternative Press produced an aesthetics of intermedia experimentation that traversed poetic schools, eras, and allegiances in the late twentieth-century United States. It situates the Alternative Press in the context of better-known art-world movements, such as Mail Art and Fluxus, and links the Press’s founders—Ann and Ken Mikolowski—with other influential publishers and artists of the time, notably Dick Higgins. This article introduces substantial new archival research conducted at the University of Michigan Special Collections, and prompts scholars to consider how a Detroit-based publisher can remap the geographical and generic contours of late-twentieth-century US poetry.

摘要

本文针对位于底特律的名为 Alternative Press 的实验性出版商，该出版社在 1969 年至 1999 年间以保险杠贴纸和明信片的形式出版了古怪的艺术和诗歌作品，以及其他有用的物品。虽然 Alternative Press 在很大程度上是未知的对于学者来说，这篇文章追溯了它对诗人的影响，包括维克多·埃尔南德斯·克鲁兹、罗伯特·克里利、黛安·迪普里马、泰德·贝里根和爱丽丝·诺特利。它表明，尽管这些诗人（和其他新闻撰稿人）通常根据其他地理或形式倾向进行分组，但参与另类新闻产生了一种跨诗歌流派、时代和效忠于 20 世纪后期联合状态。它将另类出版社置于更知名的艺术世界运动的背景下，如邮件艺术和激浪派，并将出版社的创始人安和肯米科洛夫斯基与当时其他有影响力的出版商和艺术家联系起来，尤其是迪克希金斯。本文介绍了在密歇根大学特藏大学进行的大量新档案研究，并促使学者思考底特律出版商如何重新绘制 20 世纪后期美国诗歌的地理和通用轮廓。