Dorothy Allison

At a glance

Born 1949-04-11; died 2024-11-06.

Who they were

Dorothy Earlene Allison was an American writer whose writing focused on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism, and lesbianism. She was a self-identified femme lesbian. Allison won several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Early life

Early life Dorothy Earlene Allison was born in Greenville, South Carolina , on April 11, 1949, to Ruth Gibson Allison, who was 15 years old at the time. [ 1 ] Her father died when she was a baby. Her single mother was poor, working as a waitress and cook. Ruth eventually married, but when Dorothy was five, her stepfather began to abuse her sexually. [ 1 ] This abuse lasted for seven years. At the age of 12, Allison told a relative about it, who told her mother.

Education Allison was the first of her family to graduate from high school. [ 1 ] In 1967, Allison attended Florida Presbyterian College on a National Merit scholarship. While in college, she joined the women's movement by way of a feminist collective . She credited "militant feminists" for encouraging her decision to write. Also around this time, Allison severed all ties to her family until 1981. [ 2 ] She graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology . [ 3 ]

Why this date

Dorothy Allison appears on our November 6 calendar for 2024 as a death entry.