Author Profile: Dorothy Allison

On November 6, 2024, at the age of 75, Dorothy Allison, a brilliant author and a personal favourite of mine passed away. In honour of her memory, and the impact her writing had on me, I am writing my first Author Profile.

Who Was Dorothy Allison?

Allison was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1949 to fifteen year old Ruth Gibson Allison. Her father died while she was a baby and her mother worked as a waitress and a cook and eventually remarried. Allison's stepfather was both physically and sexually abusive. Later, she and her family moved to Florida, and Allison became the first person in her family to graduate from high school. She later went on to earn a Master's Degree in urban anthropology.

Her most famous book is probably Bastard Out Of Carolina, a semi-autobiographical tale about a young girl growing up in South Carolina, involving themes of religion, abuse, and class. It was published in 1992 and later adapted for film. She later would publish another novel, Cavedweller, and has also written multiple collections of short stories and poems.

Allison was more than a writer. She studied karate, held a variety of different jobs, and was also a feminist activist. During her adolescence, Allison realized she was a lesbian. She faced sexism, homophobia, and classism throughout her life, and a lot of this comes through in her writing. It was her fellow activists who encouraged her to write. Through her writing she became a beacon to many.

Her Writing

The Women Who Hate Me: Poems by Dorothy Allison (1983)
Trash: Short Stories (1988)
The Women Who Hate Me: Poetry 1980–1990 (1991)
Bastard Out of Carolina (1992)
Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature (1994)
Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (1995)
Cavedweller (1998)
Jason Who Will be Famous (2009)
Conversations with Dorothy Allison (2012)

What her Writing Meant to Me

I found Dorothy Allison when I was in high school in a roundabout way. In my Grade 12 Society class, I was assigned a project on child abuse. Someone suggested I watch the movie, Bastard out of Carolina, and it was quite shocking to see child abuse and rape on screen like that. I was curious about the book it was based on and found it at the library. That's when I fell in love with Allison's writing voice. Her raw honesty and beautiful prose struck me.

I was also impressed by how much of the book wasn't about abuse. Bone, the main character, was brave, strong, and full of dreams. Her desperate desire to be a gospel singer, despite having a terrible voice spoke to me. I never burned to sing as much as she did, but as someone who can't carry a tune, but badly wanted to, I related. I think that was the main draw - relating to Bone. Bone's life is very different to mine. I did not grow up in an abusive household. We weren't rich by any stretch, but we got by. I live in Canada and she was in the Southern states. Despite these differences, I could connect to her, and we had other things in common. I was not popular at school. I was a tomboy. I, too, have a large family, etc.

I think that's what makes stories resonate, connecting to the characters, even when their lives are so different from the readers'. That's also what is so crucial about reading and experiencing stories about people who are different. It creates empathy and understanding. Poverty was not a thing I experienced directly, but it was something that was possible. As I said, we had enough, but not so much that poverty felt impossible. Bastard out of Carolina was a window to another way of life, and later, when I learned that it was semi-autobiographical, that made the story even more powerful.

A year later, in my OAC (Grade 13) English class, I was assigned a project comparing two books I had never read before. I lied and pretended I hadn't read Bastard out of Carolina several times already and wrote on that one (my teacher probably knew). For the second book, I tried other books about the south, but my teacher rejected them. This was the late 90s and Amazon and the internet weren't what they are today, but our library had Cavedweller, Allison's other novel, so I dove into that one, and again I was struck by her writing.

I don't remember Cavedweller as well. I enjoyed it, but only read it the one time. Bastard out of Carolina became a strange sort of comfort read for me. When I was sad or unhappy, I would reread it because I knew that I would get swept up in the prose and escape my life for a little while. The other book that used to do this for me was Stephen King's Tommyknockers. Strange combo, I know.

When I learned of Allison's death, I was saddened, stunned, and I admit, a little ashamed. I only read those two books, and despite my appreciation for her work, I never sought out the rest of what she wrote. I kept an ear out for any new novels, but didn't look up her short stories or essays - something I now plan to do.

I can't recommend her writing enough. If the subject matter of Bastard out of Carolina is too much for you, Cavedweller, still has references to domestic abuse, but isn't anywhere near as graphic.

Sources/Further Reading:
A Question of Class by Dorothy Allison - Essay

Obituary in Advocate

5 things to know about Dorothy Allison by Tara-Michelle Ziniuk

Dorothy Allison, Author and Force of Nature Has Died by Brittany Allen on LitHub

Wikipedia - Dorothy Allison

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