". an evocative overview of a legendary publisher."-- "Rebecca Kosick has done a great service for American letters by assembling the story of the aptly named Alternative Press, which was started by poet Ken Mikolowski and artist Ann Mikolowski. For thirty years, they ran a press in Michigan that brought together a wide range of poets and artists, many of whom did original works. Their enthusiasm and love were boundless. The list of contributors and members of countercultural community grows more astonishing as the years pass, and figures such as Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Alice Notley, John Sinclair, and Anne Waldman have become belatedly recognized by the literary establishment. As Kosick points out, many of the works were lost. Bumper stickers, poems handwritten on postcards, artworks, broadsides, and other ephemera were put into a manila envelope and mailed to subscribers and friends.

This partial record is the only one we have. We should be grateful to Kosick for the gift she has given us."--John Yau, author "Emerging from Detroit rather than the coastal capitals of publishing and art, the Alternative Press reimagined the possibilities of collective creation and circulation. Through Rebecca Kosick's keen analysis and a generous selection of reproduced broadsides, postcards, and handmade works, establishes the press as a vital, innovative force in postmodern American literature and art."--William Barillas, author of "In this impeccably researched, sumptuously illustrated book, Rebecca Kosick dives into the wreck of the archive, uncovering a fascinating secret history of post-1945 American poetry and art through one radical, inventive small press with an unlikely home base in Detroit, far from the coasts. The Alternative Press 'will outlast the auto industry,' Allen Ginsberg once proclaimed--and thanks to Kosick's lively, meticulous recovery project, it just might."--Andrew Epstein, author of "This is the definitive book on Ann and Ken Mikolowski's brilliantly uncatalogable Alternative Press, the thirty-year Midwestern publishing project whose experiments in poetry postcards, broadsides, bumper stickers, and more lent American poetry new intermedial forms. Incisive, companionable, and driven by Kosick's indexical archival knowledge, is a print culture poetry dream.

The bumper sticker for this book should read: 'Nothing is ephemeral.'"--Nick Sturm, author of "Marvelous to see these ephemeral bookmarks, broadsides, and cards made permanent--and in living color. Kosick captures the uncollectible soul of the Alternative Press: its DIY ebullience, samizdat ethos, Detroit politics, and postal poetics. Ken and Ann Mikolowski didn't just run a press; they assembled a rollicking crew of poets and artists. Kosick is the perfect chronicler of this whooping barn dance of an archive in process, which bursts well-wrought urns. affirms that poetry can't be standardized--but it can be set loose."--Charles Bernstein, author of.