Order of Dorothy Allison Books

Dorothy Allison is an American author out of South Carolina. Allison has won many awards over her writing career, including the, American Library Association Prize for Lesbian and Gay Writing, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction.

She was the first of her family to graduate from high school and then went on to attend Florida Presbyterian College. She would earn her Bachelor of Arts in anthropology before going on to do graduate work at Florida State University, The Sagaris Institute, and the New School for Social Research.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

If You Like Dorothy Allison Books, You’ll Love…

• Toni Morrison
• Rita Mae Brown
• Jesmyn Ward

Bastard Out of Carolina is one of Allison’s most famous works. The book takes place in Greenville County in South Carolina which is the home to the Boatwright family. The family is full of hard-drinking men and women who get married too young and then age too quickly. Ruth Anne, known as Bone, is a bastard child that makes strong observations about the world around her. Her stepfather Daddy Glen is mean to her and is becoming increasingly more vicious towards her. This puts her in a triangle that will test the loyalty of her mother and ultimately lead to a confrontation that will change everything.

Allison is also the author of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. This book was a National Book Award nominee upon its release in 1992. The book tells the story of the Gibson women and the men of loved them and/or abused them. The story focuses on what these women go through in a tough Carolina childhood. Dorothy gets in-depth into how desire can surprise us as she tells the story of what power feels like to a young girl who has suffered from abuse.