There is almost nothing famed American writer and National Book Award Finalist Dorothy Allison is afraid to talk about.
The author of the critically acclaimed novel "Bastard Out of Carolina" has struggled her entire life with difficult issues ranging from dealing with an abusive stepfather to coming to terms with her homosexuality to having a child with her lesbian partner.
Last night in Brace Commons, Allison spoke in a distinctive Southern drawl to a crowd of about 100 students, faculty, and community members about writing, surviving, loving, and raising children.
Allison began her discussion with a passionate reading from her most well-known novel, "Bastard Out of Carolina."
The section of semi-autobiographical "Bastard" from which she read was a personal narrative about a trip to the hospital at a young age after her stepfather broke her tailbone.
After reading, the author fielded questions on various topics from the audience. The inquiries often led to other stories that seemed to flow from Allison's lips as unedited stories of her childhood, adolescence, and middle-age.
She spoke of the difficulties of a lesbian couple raising a child in today's society. She said she tries not to worry about her son's sexuality though she said she "put [her son] in karate lessons, but he wanted to take ballet" and he "has an Easy Bake oven."
"I'm the first woman I ever fell in love with and the first man I ever tried to kill," Allison said of her difficult adolescent years.
In 1974, at the age of 24, Allison said she nearly committed suicide in Tallahassee, Florida by drinking and overdosing on pills. In a last ditch effort to save her own life, she called a women's center and talked to an operator for an hour and a half between vomiting and crying, she recalled.
Allison has been quoted as saying that writing is "the only way I know how to make sure of my ongoing decision to live." She said she believes writing is good therapy, but interesting writing doesn't usually come from the "stuff you do when you stressed."
"I try to write what I know to be the truth, and that's the advice I'd give to you all," she said.
Of her aspirations, she recounted that she wanted to be a "Psychic Superwoman" and, had she been a boy, she "would have been a gospel preacher."
The stepfather who abused her currently works the graveyard shift at a convenience store "selling beer to teenagers and coffee to truckers," which Allison likened to "hell on earth."
"I hope he lives a long, long time," she said.
"I ain't no saint," Allison said. Although her stories about herself often have her as the victim, she said she should not be beatified.
Allison does not censor herself for college students, she said. Most members of the audience seemed unfazed by her use of expletives and frank conversation.
A member of the audience asked why Allison ended "Bastard" in a surprising and what many consider a disappointing way.
She responded by saying "I wanted a happy ending, and I know it's hard to see but it's there."
Allison is the first annual Visionary in Residence sponsored by the Women's Resource Center and the Tucker Foundation. She is the author of "Skin," "Two or Three Things I Know for Sure," and most recently "Cavedweller," among other works.
