Dorothy Allison

Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the first child of a fifteen-year-old unwed mother who worked as a waitress. Allison, the first member of her family to graduate from high school, attended Florida Presbyterian college on a National Merit Scholarship. She studied anthropology at the New School for Social Research.

Now living in Northern California with her partner Alix and her son, Wolf Michael, she describes herself as a feminist, a working-class storyteller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet, and a happily born-again Californian. An award-winning editor for Quest, Conditions, and Outlook—early feminist and Lesbian & Gay journals, Allison's chapbook of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, was published with Long Haul Press in 1983.

Her short story collection, Trash (1988), was published by Firebrand Books. Trash won two Lambda Literary Awards and the American Library Association Prize for Lesbian and Gay Writing. Allison says that the early Feminist movement changed her life. "It was like opening your eyes underwater. It hurt, but suddenly everything that had been dark and mysterious became visible and open to change." However, she admits she would never have begun to publish her stories if she hadn't gotten over her prejudices and started talking to her mother and sisters again. 

Allison received mainstream recognition with her novel Bastard Out of Carolina (1992), a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The novel won the Ferro Grumley prize, an ALA Award for Lesbian and Gay Writing, became a best-seller, and is an award-winning movie. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Cavedweller (1998) became a national bestseller, NY Times Notable book of the year, a finalist for the Lillian Smith prize, and an ALA prize winner.

Adapted for the stage by Kate Moira Ryan, the play was directed by Michael Greif and featured music by Hedwig composer Stephen Trask. In 2003, Lisa Cholendenko directed a movie version featuring Krya Sedwick. The expanded edition of Trash (2002) included the prize-winning short story "Compassion," selected for Best American Short Stories 2003 and Best New Stories from the South 2003.

In Fall 2009, Allison was The McGee Professor and writer at Davidson College in North Carolina. Spring of 2007, Allison was Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry’s Distinguished Visiting Professor. In the summer of 2007, she was Famosa in Macondo in San Antonio, Texas. 2006, she was a writer in residence at Columbia College in Chicago. Awarded the 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, Allison is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers board.