The Amazing Dorothy Allison

[Slater]

Originally Posted by Medusa

Dorothy will be at our Reunion party in October and many of you will get the chance to meet her in person and hear her speak live. It will change your life. No, I'm not kidding.

Dorothy-love goes here!

Please excuse me for a moment while I go squeee like a little fanboi. Oh wait, I'm not going to be at the Reunion. Crap. Still, I squeee for all of you who will be.

Many years ago when I worked for the Lesbian Resource Center and we were planning our 25th Anniversary celebration, I desperately wanted to get Dorothy as a speaker. I sent requests out every which way, hoping one would find its way to her in time. All of them did. She wasn't able to attend because of a scheduling conflict be she wrote me a very nice personal letter congratulating us and sending her regrets and all that. Let's just say that not every prominent lesbian we contacted about the event was quite so personable (although Lily Tomlin did leave us a nice voicemail).

Just a few weeks ago I ran across the video of Dorothy at the Femme Conference and I was thinking I need to re-read some of her stuff because it's been so long (I never did make it through Bastard though). I loved her essays and I learned a ton from them too.