The Yellow Press was founded by a group of young scholars at the University of Illinois-Chicago. The students were taken under the wing of legendary poet Ted Berrigan and attended night classes with the writer at Northeastern Illinois University. Berrigan encouraged his budding pupils to forge their own path in the literary world by creating their own magazine, Milk Quarterly. He continued to stand by their side as they transferred into the world of publishing and even released a few of his own works through their new publishing group, the Yellow Press. Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley continued to be a great source of inspiration for the poets and welcomed the newcomers with open arms.

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The first issue of Milk Quarterly was released in 1972. The magazine ran eight full length issues and two combined special editions, to make a total of twelve issues. Each installment was crafted to showcase a variety of poets and present artists with a platform to publish their works. The magazine had an editorial team that stayed mostly consistent throughout Milk Quarterly's run. At the core of this team was Richard Friedman, Peter Kostakis, and Darlene Pearlstein with notable editorial contributions from Bob Rosenthal and Donald Nisonoff. The Milk Quarterly was a magazine that welcomed many forms of poetry from prose to free verse, and highlighted over 130 artists throughout its time. The final two editions of Milk Quarterly are especially notable for their insightful and creative end to the magazine's career. 15 Chicago Poets (Issues 9 and 10), which was later released as a fully bound book by the Yellow Press, features fifteen poets who were influential to the poetry scene in Chicago at the time. The infamous final issue of Milk Quarterly, The Hat Issue (Issues 11 and 12), is comprised of a series of questionnaires filled out by a vast array of people including John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The issue also showcases a variety of hat poems from many Chicago poets.

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The Yellow Press was started along side its magazine Milk Quarterly. It was initially created to give poets a launching point to publish their works, similar to the platform of Milk Quarterly. The Yellow Press published the works of many well known poets along with poets who were just emerging onto the poetry scene. Alice Notley and Ted Berrigan each released their own books through the press. It was also the ground point for young poets Bob Rosenthal, Richard Friedman, and Darlene Pearlstein to showcase their own works. At the forefront of its career, the Yellow Press collected funds from the University of Illinois to begin its own reading series. With the backing of Ted Berrigan, the reading series drew a good amount of attention from well acclaimed poets of the time, many of whom were New York School artists. The reading series ran out of the Body Politic theater in Chicago every Monday night and the Yellow Press set out to have an array of poets present at each reading. The group also held workshops for writers that ran out of the Body Politic. At its core, the group of young poets who founded the Yellow Press wanted nothing more than to present their work and give other writers the opportunity to display theirs.¹

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In 1990, the Yellow Press announced its first winner of the Ted Berrigan Award. The award was presented to Susan Timmons and her book, Locked From the Outside. The award was created to commemorate the late Ted Berrigan and showcase the work of a poet who had not yet published a major collection. The award was based in Berrigan's history of supporting and guiding young poets. The accolade was selected by Alice Notley, Robert Creeley, Anselm Hollo, and Ron Padgett. Alice Notley wrote the preface for Locked From the Outside in which she notes Ted's love for inspiring young writers and his ultimate appreciation for poetry itself.² The second, and final, awardee of the Ted Berrigan Award was Joel Lewis. Lewis' book, House Rent Boogie, was published by the Yellow Press in 1992 and features a foreword from Maureen Owen. The group ceased bestowing the award after the panel felt as though the incoming manuscripts lacked excitement. This marked the end of the Yellow Press, as its founders continued on with their lives within and outside of the poetry scene.

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