Her Life
She was born on April 11th, 1949 to a 15 year old, unwed mother and raised in South Carolina, linking to her first novel Bastard Out of Carolina.
Dorothy Allison was sexually and physically abused by her stepfather for most of her childhood and adolescent years, until she moved out to go to college.
She graduated from Florida Presbyterian College with a degree in Anthropology and continued her anthropological studies in graduate school at Florida State University.
As Dorothy Allison worked day job after day job to pay her bills, she wrote short stories about her childhood abuse and poverty, as well as her love of women, all of which led to her career as a novelist, writer and poet.
Her Novel Bastard Out of Carolina was banned in schools for it's graphic nature, and was temporarily banned as a film, but the banning was appealed.
Her second novel Cavedweller was a New York Times best seller and was made into a 2004 film starring Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.
Dorothy Allison writes primarily about child and sexual abuse, family, lesbianism, feminism, and women in general.
One of the women who helped inspire and influence Dorothy Allison was Toni Morrison and her book The Bluest Eye; this book helped Allison feel more comfortable writing about the more graphic parts of her life.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)