Conversations with Dorothy Allison

Mae Miller Claxton

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781617032868
• eBook ISBN: 9781628468038
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Since the publication of her groundbreaking novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison (b. 1949) has been known—along with Larry Brown and Lee Smith—as a purveyor of the working-class, contemporary South. Allison has frequently used her position, through passionate lectures and enthusiastic interviews, to give voice to issues dear to her: poverty, working-class life, domestic violence, feminism and women's relationships, the contemporary South, and gay/lesbian life. Often called a "writer-rock star" and a "cult icon, " Allison is a true performer of the written word. At the same time, Allison also takes the craft of writing very seriously. In this collection, spanning almost two decades, Allison the performer and Allison the careful craftsperson both emerge, creating a portrait of a complex woman. In the absence of a biography of Allison's life, Conversations with Dorothy Allison presents Allison's perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflicted role as a public figure.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chronology
• Moving toward Truth: An Interview with Dorothy Allison
• Dorothy Allison, Crossover Blues
• Literary Heroine: Talking with Dorothy Allison
• Dorothy Allison
• An Interview with Dorothy Allison
• “We’re as American as You Can Get”: Dorothy Allison
• The Roseanne of Literature
• Dorothy Allison: A Family Redeemed
• Dorothy Allison
• An Open Book
• Dorothy Allison
• Dorothy Allison
• Writer Out of Carolina: Dorothy Allison
• Marina Lewis Talks with Dorothy Allison
• Lessening the Damage: Interview with Dorothy Allison
• An Interview with Dorothy Allison
• Interview with a Master: Dorothy Allison
• Interview with Dorothy Allison
• Index