Non-Fiction Books

Compelling collection of autobiographical narratives, essays, and performance pieces They don't write much better than this.

Bastard Out of Carolina , nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure , she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next. Illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and the men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she confronts abuse. As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure , steeped in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.

Since the publication of her groundbreaking novel, Bastard Out of Carolina , Dorothy Allison (b. 1949) has been known―along with Larry Brown and Lee Smith―as a purveyor of the working-class, contemporary South. Allison has frequently used her position, through passionate lectures and enthusiastic interviews, to give voice to issues dear to her: poverty, working-class life, domestic violence, feminism and women’s relationships, the contemporary South, and gay/lesbian life. Often called a “writer-rock star” and a “cult icon,” Allison is a true performer of the written word. At the same time, Allison also takes the craft of writing very seriously. In this collection, spanning almost two decades, Allison the performer and Allison the careful craftsperson both emerge, creating a portrait of a complex woman. In the absence of a biography of Allison’s life, Conversations with Dorothy Allison presents Allison’s perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflicted role as a public figure.