Alix Layman & Dorothy Allison
Dan Carmell, who worked for the Oakland transit district, is the biological father of Wolf, the son of Dorothy Allison and Alix Layman, and all four of them shared an house. They make up what Allison calls a "weird extended queer family" or, as she once wrote, "Mama and Mom and Dad and son." Dan Carmell was Bo Huston's partner: at the time of his death, Bo Huston and Dan Carmell shared a beautiful home in San Francisco with their four cats, and Huston was continuing his work as a journalist for the San Francisco Bay Times and other publications, occasionally teaching writing, and had begun a collection of thematically related short stories. Bo Huston died of AIDS complications more or less simultaneously with the publication of his second novel, The Dream Life, in 1993.
Dorothy E. Allison was born on April 11, 1949 in Greenville, South Carolina to Ruth Gibson Allison, who was fifteen at the time. Ruth was a poor and unmarried mother who worked as a waitress and cook. When Allison was five, her step dad began to sexually abuse her. It lasted for seven years (until age 11) and then she was able to tell a relative, who told Ruth, and it stopped. The family still remained together. The physical abuse resumed and lasted for another five years, and she contracted gonorrhea from her stepfather. This went undiagnosed until Allison was in her 20's, making her unable to have children.
Dorothy Allison with Alix Layman and Wolf Micha, 1987, by Robert Giard
Dorothy Allison is an American writer, speaker, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. She is one of the founders of the Lesbian Sex Mafia. Since 1987 her partner is musician Alix Layman and they have one son, Wolf. Dan Carmell, partner of late Bo Huston, is the biological father of Wolf, the son of Allison and Layman, and all four of them shared an house at one time. They make up what Allison calls a "weird extended queer family" or, as she once wrote, "Mama and Mom and Dad and son"
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Allison
Very few writers make the case that writing saves lives the way that Dorothy Allison does in Trash, a short story collection. Writing with her loud, imagistic, Southern queer voice fine-tuned to the way the world works and how stories might make sense of life’s horrors, Allison pulls no punches. The opening story of this collection, “River of Names,” announces the writer as a force to be reckoned with, an artist who was never meant to survive her brutal childhood, and from there, this collection of unforgettable stories never looks back. Related reading: Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison’s breakthrough novel, the clear-eyed story of a defiant childhood. --K.M. Soehnlein( Collapse )
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time
Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher
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