- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDorothy Earlene Allison
- Dorothy Allison was born on April 11, 1949 in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. She was a writer, known for Cavedweller (2004), Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) and In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction (2022). She was married to Alix Layman. She died on November 6, 2024 in Guerneville, California, USA.
- SpouseAlix Layman(November 2, 2008 - November 5, 2022) (her death, 1 child)
- Her 1988 collection of short stories, Trash, won two Lambda Literary Awards, for Best Small Press book and Best Lesbian book, in 1989.
- With her partner Alix Layman, a printer who plays trombone in an all-women's swing band, she has a son, Wolf Michael.
- Legally blind in one eye.
- Her influences include Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Jewelle Gomez, Toni Morrison, Bertha Harris and Audre Lorde.
- In Fall 2009 she was The McGee Professor and writer in residence at Davidson College, in North Carolina.
- "I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement. It gave me a vision that I could do something different, and it gave me an understanding that I wasn't a monster, or sport, or a betrayer of my family. And it gave me a source of joy. It told me that being a lesbian was not a crime or a sin, that I could be happy, and that I could do something of use." (San Francisco Focus, December 23, 1996)
- When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels. My sister became unmarried and pregnant during high school, and she kept saying, 'This wasn't supposed to happen! Why is this happening to me?' Someone should have given her another book to read. (February 1996, "We Are Not Monsters: It's Time To Talk About Sex," University of Maine at Farmington)
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