"The life and writing of Dorothy Allison illustrate her firm commitment to the two 'outlaw' cultures with which she identifies," wrote a critic for Contemporary Southern Writers, "her 'white trash' South Carolina family, a nd her sexually daring (and non-PC) lesbian activist associates." Allison's work in both poetry and prose explores the borderlands of these "outlaw" cultures. She became a recognized poet and short story writer in the 1980s with her collections The Women Who Hate Me and Trash. But it was not until the publication of her novel Bastard out of Carolina that Allison garnered mainstream attention as a writer. In these, as well as in more recent works, which include the nonfiction accounts Skin: Talking about Sex, Class, and Literature, the autobiographical Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, and her 1998 novel, Cavedweller, Allison has secured her reputation as a writer who deals frankly and...