Contact: Karyn Brown
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Accomplished author and speaker Dorothy Allison will join Mississippi State as this year’s guest for the College of Arts and Sciences Institute for the Humanities’ third annual Writer-in-Residence February 29 – March 4.
A public reading will be held March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Colvard Student Union Foster Ballroom.
An author of fiction, essays and poetry, Allison is best known for the bestselling novel “Bastard Out of Carolina” (1992), a finalist for the National Book Award. In the book, Allison offers an honest and dispassionate portrayal of a girl from a poor family who experiences and survives sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.
The week-long event is a collaboration with the Department of English, Gender Studies, and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Institute for the Humanities, along with support from a Mississippi Humanities Council grant.
During her visit, Allison will meet with creative writing students and participate in an informal discussion session in the Gender Studies program. She also will hold office hours during her stay to work with students.
“Our Writer-in-Residence program has been very successful over the past few years, and we’re delighted to have Dorothy Allison at Mississippi State. It’s a great opportunity for campus and community,” said William Anthony Hay, Institute for the Humanities director.
“We welcome the public to hear Allison discuss her work at the Tuesday evening reading. Other parts of the five-day program allow students and faculty to discuss writing with an author known for her enthusiasm at taking over the creative process,” he added.
Born in 1949 in Greenville, South Carolina, Allison is the oldest child born to a poor, unmarried fifteen-year-old. Raised in poverty and subjected to years of abuse, Allison has used her experiences and talent to become a voice for those who feel they don’t have one.
Among her numerous honors are the 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award, two Lambda Literary Awards, and the American Library Association Prize for Lesbian and Gay Writing.
Her work has been anthologized in both “The Best American Short Stories” and “The Best New Stories from the South.” In 1998, Allison founded The Independent Spirit Award, designed to support writers who champion small presses and independent bookstores.
Becky Hagenston, MSU associate professor of English, said Allison “approaches the subjects of gender, violence, class and family with compassion, directness and disarming humor. In all of her work—not just her fiction, but also her poems and essays—she’s a storyteller whose powerful voice hooks you from the get-go.”
For more information about Allison’s campus visit, contact Hay at whay@history.msstate.edu or Karyn Brown, College of Arts and Sciences communication director, at kbrown@deanas.msstate.edu or 662-325-7952.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.