Dorothy Allison

Dorothy Earlene Allison (April 11, 1949 – November 6, 2024) was an American writer whose writing focused on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism, and lesbianism. She was a self-identified femme lesbian. Allison won several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Early life

Dorothy Earlene Allison was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on April 11, 1949, to Ruth Gibson Allison, who was 15 years old at the time. Her father died when she was a baby. Her single mother was poor, working as a waitress and cook. Ruth eventually married, but when Dorothy was five, her stepfather began to abuse her sexually. This abuse lasted for seven years. At the age of 12, Allison told a relative about it, who told her mother. Ruth forced her husband to leave the girl alone, and the family remained together. The respite did not last long, as the stepfather resumed the sexual abuse, continuing for five years. Allison suffered mentally and physically, contracting gonorrhea that was not diagnosed and treated until she was in her 20s. The untreated disease left her unable to have children.

When aged about 11, Allison moved with her family to Central Florida. Allison found respite from her family life in school. She said that she became aware of her lesbian sexuality during her early adolescence.

Education

Allison was the first of her family to graduate from high school.

In 1967, Allison attended Florida Presbyterian College on a National Merit scholarship. While in college, she joined the women's movement by way of a feminist collective. She credited "militant feminists" for encouraging her decision to write. Also around this time, Allison severed all ties to her family until 1981. She graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology.

Allison subsequently did graduate work in anthropology at Florida State University, the Sagaris Institute, and the New School for Social Research, where she earned a M.A. in urban anthropology in 1981.

Career

Allison held a variety of jobs before gaining any success as a writer. From 1973 to 1974, she was the editor of the feminist magazine Amazing Grace, in Tallahassee, Florida. During this time, she was also a founding manager of Herstore Feminist Bookstore in Tallahassee. She worked as a salad girl, a maid, a nanny, and a substitute teacher. She also worked at a child-care center, answered phones at a rape crisis center, and clerked with the Social Security Administration. In certain periods, she trained during the day and at night sat in her motel room and wrote on yellow legal pads. She wrote about her life experiences, including the abuse by her stepfather, dealing with poverty, and her lust for women.

Allison's first book of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, was published with Long Haul Press in 1983. In 1988, her first short story collection, Trash, was published by Firebrand Books. Her first novel Bastard Out of Carolina was published in 1992, becoming a best-seller. It was later adapted as a film of the same name, directed by Anjelica Huston for TNT. The book and film both generated controversy because of the graphic content, and the TV film was aired on Showtime rather than TNT. The Canadian Maritime Film Classification Board initially banned distribution of the film in Canada, but the ban was reversed on appeal. In November 1997, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a State Board of Education decision to ban the book in public high schools because of its graphic content.

Allison published another novel, Cavedweller, and two collections of poetry and short stories.

In 1998, Allison founded The Independent Spirit Award to support writers who help sustain small presses and independent bookstores.

In 2006, Allison was the writer in residence at Columbia College in Chicago. The following year, Allison was Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry's Distinguished Visiting Professor and Famosa in residence at Macondo in San Antonio, Texas. In 2007, Allison announced that she was working on a new novel entitled She Who, to be published by Riverhead Books.

Allison held a three-month residency at Emory University in Atlanta in 2008 as the Bill and Carol Fox Center Distinguished Visiting Professor. In 2009, Allison was The McGee Professor and writer in residence at Davidson College, in North Carolina.

Writing

Themes in Allison's work include class struggle, child and sexual abuse, women, lesbianism, feminism, and family. French literary scholar Mélanie Grué describes Allison's work as a celebration of "the vilified transgressive lesbian body." Grué also notes Allison's ability "to make [lesbian] desire and pleasure public" in her writing, in contrast to the second-wave feminist views on "correct expressions" of sexuality.

Her influences include Judy Grahn, Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Jewelle Gomez, Toni Morrison, Bertha Harris, and Audre Lorde. Allison said The Bluest Eye by Morrison helped her to write about incest. In the early 1980s, Allison met Lorde at a poetry reading. After reading what would eventually become her short story "River of Names", Lorde approached her and told her that she simply must write. Upon moving to California, Allison explored the people and histories of the early gay women's liberation presses, stating "There were some great lesbian writers. You know, I made my pilgrimage to go see Judy Grahn."

Activism

Allison said that the early feminist movement changed her life. "It was like opening your eyes under water. It hurt, but suddenly everything that had been dark and mysterious became visible and open to change." However, she admitted that she would never have begun to publish her stories if she had not gotten over her prejudices, and started talking to her mother and sisters again.

Allison advocated for safer sex and was active in feminist and lesbian communities. She and Jo Arnone cofounded the Lesbian Sex Mafia in 1981, the "oldest continuously running women's BDSM support and education group in the country".