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Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Dorothy Allison combined her southern roots and raw talent and took the literary community by storm when her first novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, was one of the five finalists for the 1992 National Book Award. Though the novel did not win that award, it did win several other awards and launched Allison’s career.

She has also published two editions of poetry, both titled The Women Who Hate Me-the first in 1983 by Long Haul Press and the expanded 1990 edition by Firebrand.  Her poetry chapbook has been continuously in print for more than twelve years.

Allison’s second novel, Cavedweller (Dutton, 1998) won the 1998 Lambda Literary Award for fiction and was a best seller. Also, in that same year, Allison founded the Independent Spirit Award, a prize given each year to an individual whose work with small presses and independent bookstores has helped to sustain that enterprise.

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Allison lives in Northern California with her partner, and her seven year old son, Wolf Michael.