Mekalyn Miller

English 3 Honors
Ms. Bentley
October 5, 2014
Analysis of Dorothy Allisons Background


Dorothy Allison was born on April 11, 1949 and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina.
She was the first of a 15-year-old unwed mother, Ruth Gibson Allison, who worked as a
waitress. Dorothy and her younger sister did not get to know their father, who died when
they were still babies. From an early age, Dorothy admired her grandmother and Aunt
Dot as strong women and dazzling storytellers. When Dorothy was five, Ruth married a
route salesman who began sexually abusing Dorothy. At age eleven, Dorothy was able to
talk of the continuing molestation to a cousin, who informed Ruth. Although Ruth took
the children away from their stepfather for few weeks, they returned when the stepfather
swore he would stop. However, the abuse did not end for another two years, at which
point she and her sisters found ways to discourage their stepfathers sexual advances.
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. Dorothy Allison is an accomplished writer and speaker who frankly tackles;
gender, class, violence, and sexual orientation. An award-winning editor for Quest,
Conditions, and Outlook-Early feminist and Lesbian and Gay journals, Allisons
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 Fire brand 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 under water. It hurt, but suddenly everything that had
been dark and mysterious became visible and open to change. Howeve, she admits, she
would never have geun to publish her stories if she had not 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, and ALA Award for
Lesbian and Gay writing, became best seller, and an award-winning movie. It has been
translated into more than a dozen languages. Cavedweller (1998) became a national
best seller, NY Times Notable book of the year, finalist for the Lillian Smith prize, and
an ALA prize winner. The book was adapted for the stage by Kate Moira Ryan, the play
was directed by Michael Grief, and featured music by Hedwig composer, Stephen Trask.
In 2003, Lisa Cholendenko directed a movie version featuring Kyra Sedwick. The
expanded edition of Trash (2002) included the prize winning short story,
Compassion selected for both Best American short Stories 2003 and Best new Stories
from the South 2003. Fall 2009, Allison was The McGee professor and writer in
residence at Davidson College, in North Carolina. Spring, 2007, Allison was emory
University Center for Humanistic Inquirys Distinguished Visiting Professor. Summer,
2007, she was Famosa in residence at Columia College in Chicago. Awarded the 2007
Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, Allison is also a member of the board of the
Fellowship of Southern Writers.