Dorothy Allison was an award-winning author whose stories about class struggles, feminism, and being queer in the South earned her widespread acclaim, especially her novel, “Bastard Out of Carolina.”
- Died: November 5, 2024 (Who else died on November 5?)
- Details of death: Died in Guerneville, California of cancer at the age of 75.
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Dorothy Allison’s legacy
Dorothy Allison’s upbringing informed her work as a writer. Raised by a poor single mother and sexually abused by her stepfather for years, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school and earn a college degree. Her time in college exposed her to feminist ideals, which would eventually come out in her writing.
Allison was editor of the feminist magazine Amazing Grace in the 1970s, managed a feminist bookstore in Tallahassee, Florida, and worked odd jobs as she privately wrote what became her first books, “The Women Who Hate Me,” a poetry collection, and “Trash,” a collection of short stories.
In 1992, the literary world sat up and took notice when her first novel was published, “Bastard Out of Carolina.” The semi-autobiographical work took a raw look at family dynamics, class struggles, sexual abuse, race, and other topics, all set in the American South. Her book’s explicit content generated controversy, but “Bastard Out of Carolina” also earned widespread acclaim. In March 2024, The Atlantic named it among the magazine’s Great American Novels, a list of 136 fictional titles.
A collection of Allison essays followed (“Skin: Talking about Sex, Class, and Literature” in 1994), as well as a memoir (1995’s “Two or Three Things I Know for Sure”) and another novel, “Cavedweller,” in 1998. Like “Bastard Out of Carolina,” it was made into a movie.
Allison served as writer in residence at Columbia College in Chicago in 2006, and she was distinguished visiting professor at Emory University in 2007 and the McGee Professor and writer in residence at Davidson College in North Carolina in 2009, among other posts. She won the 1992 National Book Award for Fiction and the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, was given the Trailblazer Award by the Golden Crown Literary Society in 2018, and earned the Thomas Wolfe Prize a year later.
Notable quote
“I do not write about nice people. I am not nice people. Neither is anyone I have ever cared deeply about.” — excerpt from “Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature”
Tributes to Dorothy Allison
Full obituary: Advocate
