Dorothy Allison
Born April 11, 1949 – Died November 6, 2024
Lesbian-feminist writer Dorothy Allison died at her home in northern California at the age of 75 in the early hours of November 6, 2024 following a short illness with cancer.
Born on April 11, 1949 in Greenville, South Carolina, to a fifteen-year-old mother, Ruth Gibson Allison, Dorothy Allison had a difficult childhood marked by poverty and sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. She graduated from high school and then earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) with support from a National Merit Scholarship. She earned a master's degree in anthropology from The New School for Social Research in New York. In Florida, Allison joined the women’s liberation movement and found feminists and lesbians who nurtured and loved her through her life of extraordinary creative productivity.
In the 1970s and 1980s in Florida and later in Washington, DC, and New York, Allison became involved with the vibrant women in print movement that flourished throughout the United States. In Tallahassee, Florida, she was the editor of the feminist newspaper Amazing Grace and worked at the local feminist bookstore. Allison contributed essays and poems to a range of feminist publications including Quest and Out/LookVillage VoiceConditions. In an essay about that experience for Sinister Wisdom, she wrote, those women [including Jewelle Gomez and Elly Bulkin] and that journal would take over my life.” She continued, “Sitting on the floor at editorial meetings talking about writing and manuscripts and how women might work toward a more just and equitable world, I looked around and felt my heart thudding between my breasts. I loved each and every one of us. I loved what we were trying to do even as we quibbled over line breaks in a poem or structure in an essay.”
Allison published a chapbook of poetry with the Brooklyn-based feminist publisher Long Haul Press in 1983, The Women Who Hate Me. In 1988, Nancy Bereano of Firebrand Books published her collection of short stories, Trash; Trash won two Lambda Literary Awards and the American Library Association Award for Gay and Lesbian Writing. Allison’s novel Bastard Out of Carolina, published 1992 by Dutton, brought her mainstream attention and accolades; it was a best-seller and the finalist for a 1992 National Book Award. Bastard Out of Carolina follows the story of Bone, who suffers abuse at the hands of her stepfather as Allison did. Bastard Out of Carolina continues to be beloved by readers, particularly lesbian and feminist readers. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages and was made into a television movie in 1996, directed by Anjelica Huston.
In 1994, Allison published a collection of essays, Skin: Talking about Sex, Class, & Literature, with Bereano’s Firebrand Books. Dutton published her 1995 memoir, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, followed by her second novel, Cavedweller, in 1998. Lisa Cholodenko adapted Cavedweller into a movie starring Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.
Allison was a beloved creative writing teacher, lecturer, and keynote speaker at a range of colleges and universities including Emory University and Davidson College. Throughout her life she wrote erotica, or as she liked to call it smut, that she shared with a coterie of readers. Like many writers of her generation, she was also a prolific correspondent. In 2024, she was awarded the Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Allison was predeceased by her wife (after marriage equality she always described their relationship as “street legal”) Alix Layman. She is survived by her cherished son Wolf and a community of beloved friends and companions.
Information about memorial celebrations of Dorothy Allison’s life will be forthcoming.
Brief Tributes to Dorothy Allison
Cheryl Clarke remembers Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison and I joined the CONDITIONS Magazine Collective in 1981. I attended the first meeting of new Collective members, which included, the late Carroll Oliver, Jewelle Gomez, and Mirtha Quintanales, and founding members, Elly Bulkin, Jan Clausen, Irena Klepfisz, and Rima Shore, at Dorothy’s apartment in Brooklyn. I was late—as always. It was Brooklyn, you know, and I had to drive from New Brunswick, N.J.—an hour away.
Bulkin, Shore, Qunitanales, Oliver, Gomez, Allison, and I edited the transitional issue CONDITIONS: EIGHT, after seven previous issues, since 1976, including the iconic CONDITIONS: FIVE, THE BLACK WOMEN’S ISSUE. Dorothy was an editor of issues CONDITIONS: 9, 10, 11/12 THE DOUBLE ISSUE. She resigned from the Editorial Collective in 1984. I remember being so distressed when she resigned, because she was so schooled in publications and writing.
Jewelle Gomez remembers Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison was a brilliant person and a brilliant writer. She was kind, generous, astute, and no-bullshit. She would tell you when she didn’t have time for your nonsense and excuses for not doing the work. And she always did the work. Always.
The wariness Dorothy and I felt meeting forty years ago for the first time (Southern white girl vs Black Yankee) quickly evolved into love and appreciation—for each other and for our shared devotion to literature. Our differences didn’t stand a chance.
More about Dorothy Allison
Watch the launch of Sinister Wisdom 123: A Tribute to Conditions, which features Dorothy at the end (if you wish you can skip to minute 55 in the video on YouTube).
Read Dorothy Allison's acceptance speech at the Publishing Triangle Awards earlier this year.
View Robert Giard's gorgeous 1994 photo of Dorothy, Alix, and Wolf.
