Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison is the author of Bastard Out of Carolina, a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award, a recipient of the American Library Association Award for Lesbian and Gay Writing and which became a film starring Jennifer Jason Leigh (1996). Her novel, Cavedweller (Dutton, 1998) was a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, the winner of the 1998 Lambda Literary Award for fiction and a finalist for the Lillian Smith Prize. Cavedweller has also been adapted for the stage and made into a movie starring Kyra Sedgwick (2004). Allison has written a memoir Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (Dutton, 1995) and the poetry chapbook The Women Who Hate Me (1990).
Allison also has a collection of short fiction, Trash, winner of the ALA prize, published in two editions from Firebrand (1989) and in an expanded edition from Penguin (2003). A story from Trash, "Compassion" was selected for both Best American Short Stories 2003 and Best New Stories from the South 2003. In addition, she has a book of essays Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature (Firebrand, 1995). In 2006, Allison was a Visiting Professor at Columbia College in Chicago and in 2007-2008, she was the Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry’s Distinguished Visiting Professor. In fall 2009, she will be the McGee Professor and writer in residence at Davidson College. She tells people that she never expected to live so long or get so much work done, but knows that there is far more she could be doing and intends to get around to it all eventually. A novel, She Who, is forthcoming from Penguin.
