What is Counterpoise?

Counterpoise, subtitled “For Social Responsibilities, Liberty, and Dissent,” is a quarterly review journal for the alternative press. It is found in academic and public libraries, and on the shelves of personal subscribers.

The alternative press is an enormous body of books, pamphlets, magazines, zines, and audiovisual and electronic materials presenting socially responsible knowledge, points of view, and choices. Its ideas and publications are often ignored, misrepresented, or suppressed by corporate and government media. They are overlooked by schools, universities, and libraries worldwide. Counterpoise describes, criticizes, defends, and promotes these publications and products against this bias.

The journal’s 67 pages contain original essays; comparative review articles; reviews of books, periodicals, and non-print materials commonly overlooked by other review journals; letters to the editor and editor’s notes; an annotated directory of bibliographic tools for the alternative press; and indexes for publisher/distributor, author/title, and subject, which are cumulative by year. A limited amount of space is available in each issue for appropriate advertising. Counterpoise is a useful tool for libraries, bookstores, publishers, researchers, and informed citizens. And it’s a good read.

For its first years, Counterpoise was published by the Alternatives in Print Task Force of the American Library Association. It is now a project of the Civic Media Center. Counterpoise (ISSN 1092-0714) is indexed in Alternative Press Index and Book Review Index. It is distributed to libraries and individuals in hard copy and is also made available in microform and electronic formats by ProQuest and EBSCO Inc.

There is no charge for reprinting or excerpting portions of a review, but credit and attribution to Counterpoise must be given.