Dorothy Allison

writer

Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the first child of a fifteen-year-old unwed mother who worked as a waitress. Now living in Northern California with her partner Alix and her teenage son, Wolf Michael, she describes herself as a feminist, a working class story teller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet and a happily born-again Californian. The first member of her family to graduate from high school, Allison attended Florida Presbyterian college on a National Merit Scholarship and studied anthropology at the New School for Social Research. 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 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 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, finalist for the Lillian Smith prize, and an ALA prize winner. Awarded the 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, Allison is a member of the board of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. A novel, *She Who*, is forthcoming.